Happy Sunday creators!

In this week's newsletter we have:

Vegalia's story to becoming a full-time artist
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From idea to product in 14 days

Vegalia's Counselor Said Not To Pursue Art, She Did It Anyways.

Vegalia’s love for art goes back to her childhood days. But she never took it seriously until last year. Although she wanted to, when she talked to her counselor in high school about wanting to pursue art in college, they said it was a bad idea.

Their exact words were, “I don’t think you’ll make it in the art industry.”

Instead, they pushed her to pursue marketing in college. And so she did. But, not long into it, she realized she hated her marketing classes. She didn’t enjoy them one bit.

So, she switched majors and started pursuing a major in product design. The only problem was that the entire curriculum taught her about product design for physical products. Yet, she didn’t want to bring any of those physical products into the world.

So, she started a side gig.

Vegalia dove into photography and had been working as a photographer for the last three years.

But a month ago she quit her full-time job.

It started in October 2020. Blacktober was happening on Twitter. During Blacktober, black creators showcase their skills and draw characters from shows, movies, or comics.

Vegalia drew a character from Naruto that inspired her but as if she looked like her. It took endless time. Just the braids took Vegalia over five hours. The character was beautiful, and her hair was flowing with micro-braids.

Everyone loved it.

But, she didn’t want to spend five hours creating braids every time.

This is when she discovered Procreate.

With Procreate, she was able to start developing her own braid brushes.

In two months, she mastered it.

And took it to market.

Vegalia started posting her Procreate brushes on TikTok, and it exploded.

She was flooded with comments.

The demand was there.

So, she launched her first product, a braid pack.

It was a smashing success!

And since then, she launched two products, quit her full-time job, and has started building a team.

But to Vegalia “this is just the beginning.”

Vegalia also broke down how other creators can get started and become a successful creator.

Here are Vegalia’s 5 tips for aspiring creators:

1. Don’t Reinvent The Wheel

When launching a product, don’t get stuck on the idea that it needs to be novel. So, instead of re-inventing the wheel, iterate on a problem that already exists.

Make it a little bit different and focus on solving a problem that makes the customer’s life better because overall, that’s what matters.

2. Solve Your Own Problems First

Vegalia created her “Braid Pack” after spending five hours drawing braids. She didn’t want to have to do this every time she created new art so she went searching for a solution. She found Procreate and learned that she could create different brushes that would inevitably save her ample amounts of time.

This solved her problem. And she knew if she faced this problem, then there were many other creators who also would face this problem.

3. Find Your Primary Channel

Vegalia first started on TikTok. She knew her target audience lived on the platform and because of this she focused her primary efforts on TikTok. She mastered the channel then scaled to other platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

4. Listen To Your Audience

Vegalia reads all of her comments. Because of this, she eliminates the guesswork from her content strategy. In the comments, her audience will tell her what content they want to see, and what problems they’re facing. This serves as the base of Vegalia’s next steps.

5. Collaborate

Don’t do it alone. Vegalia created a system where she consistently collaborates with other artists. This exposes her to new audiences and also keeps her inspired.

Vegalia just released her most recent brush pack here.

You can buy all of Vegalia's products here.

Here’s What We Shipped For Gumroad Creators

You can now filter the notifications you want to receive via Email and Mobile.

You can view all of our shipped features here.

What’s Happening In The Creator Economy

From Idea to Product In 14 Days

Do you have an idea for a product that you’ve been sitting on for months, maybe even years?

Here’s your push to create it and launch it.

Hundreds of creators have gone through our 14 Day Product Challenge and generated their first dollar online.

During this challenge, we will send you a daily email that will guide you through:

Building an audience
Building an email list
How to turn your idea into a product
How to create a high-converting Gumroad sales page
How to create a product launch

AND a ton more!

You can sign up here.

Registration ends on July 28th and the challenge starts on July 30th.

Pablo Picasso’s Advice To Artists

Pablo Picasso is quoted for saying “good artists borrow, great artists steal.”

And as a creator, this is great advice.

The best creators don’t reinvent the wheel.

Instead, they steal/learn from others and package it in a way that’s unique to them.

Over time, this will develop multiple skills that sit within your creator toolbox.

David Perrel puts it like this, “try to build as many valuable skills as possible that are rarely seen together.”

This will be your differentiating factor.

Keep creating, and see you next week!

The Gumroad Team