Category Archives: business

My studio tour 👀

business

I got a studio outside of my home in mid-September 🥳

Dave and I have lived in a small (well, American small, anyway) two bedroom apartment forever, and that’s where I did my work before.

He also works from home, although his work would often take him out of town.

But his work situation changed over the summer, and now he’s home all. the. time.

When he came home from his last long work trip this summer, I panicked I’d lose my quiet alone time forever 😱

(Remember, I’m severly introverted.)

So I looked up website – they’re a non-profit that supports and promotes artists and art development in SE Seattle.

Lo and behold, they had a vacancy, so I toured the space and put in an application the next day.

A few days later, I had the keys in my hand!

And just like that, I had a space to do my work alone and without the possibility of interruption (<- this is the key).

Hooray!

Do you want a little tour?

Well, come on in 🥰

adorable pic by my friend Cat Snapp Studio

I didn’t want to spend whole a lot of money decorating the space – this was somewhat of an unplanned expense for me – so I kept it pretty minimal and furnished it with mostly Goodwill and Ikea furniture.

found this red chair at Goodwill for $15 🙌🏼

It’s only 115sq ft but… It’s my space and I love it!

I had a fantasy about decorating the space with lots of arts and cute things once I saved up for it, but as I started working here, I fell in love with the blankness of it all.

my work space

I find that less clutter in the room = less clutter in my mind.

I’m so used to the clutter at home so this was a pleasant surprise ✨

tea station! probably the most favorite part of my studio 😌

I try to be here three days a week. I wish I could be here more often but I also have lots to do at home (like packaging and shipping) and shows on weekends, so that’s all I can manage right now.

plants are still alive!

It’s really cool to be able to say “I work out of a studio in Hillman City.” when customers ask me where my studio is 😎

I know it kinda happened on a whim, but I do want to celebrate this milestone for my art business ✨ so thank you for letting me share it with you!

xo

ps. SEEDArts Studios host an open studio in the new year, so I’ll let you know when it’s scheduled.

Happy 4th Freedom Anniversary 🥳

business, Growth & Development, My Thoughts,

I celebrated my 4th “freedom anniversary” a.k.a. the day I quit my job to work on Honeyberry Studios full-time on July 31st🎉

(If you’re interested in knowing more about my transitioning process, you can read this blog post and many other entries from 2015.)

A few days after I quit, I went on a solo retreat to set intentions for my artist/business journey.

and here is the manifesto I created on my retreat. most of it still rings true except for creating every day and the health-obsessed bit 😀

The past 4 years have been a marathon self-development therapy session, I tell you.

I’ve learned so much about myself and am so proud of the accomplishments I’ve made so far.

I’ve been reflecting on some of the things I’ve learned and wanted to share them with you today ✨

First thing that’s come up is this:

You don’t have to be the best artist. But you need to be fiercely, unapologetically, you.

I used to feel insecure about my art. I even felt a little cringy calling myself an artist. I’m mostly self-taught, and my technical skills aren’t that advanced. I thought it was cute and child-like but not “real” art.

I thought art should be more, shall I say, deep? whatever that means…🤷🏻‍♀️

When I saw the work of other successful artists I admire, I’d think “oh, I wish my art looked more like that. It is so _______ (sophisticated, elegant, cool, hip etc. <- things that my art is not)”

Over the last several years, I’ve slowly learned that you don’t have to be the most technically advanced artist to be successful, but it needs to have your distinct voice.

I’ve gotten to internalize this as I started selling more at shows and markets last year and kept witnessing my customers’ happy reactions in person.

People’s face light up as they walk by my booth. I can see them mouthing to their friend “cuuute.” I hear “awwwwww” and “so adorable” every 5 minutes.

It’s reinforced to me that yes, cutenss is valuable, and it makes people extremely happy.

And it’s ok if that’s the only thing my art offers.

I may be oversimplifying it, but you get what I’m saying? I mean people pay a lot of money for therapy, drugs, and experiences to be happy, no? 😀

Sometimes I make something and say to myself “wait, is this too cute? Should I tone it down?”

like when I made this adorable baby card…😍

Fortunately, I can snap out of the silliness of the situation pretty quickly now. The answer is, OF COURSE NOT.

It turns out so many people love cute things. I know you do! Tone it down?? I’d be doing a disservice to you and humanity.

I want to give you what you came here for. Adorable, happy art that makes you smile.

The more joy I express through my work, the happier I get doing what I do.

And that brings more joy to you, and that gives me the fuel to keep going, and it’s a never-ending love fest ❤️

You may have been in my community since well before I quit my job 4 years ago. Or you may have just found me last week.

I still feel like a baby in my biz journey and without you, there is no Honeyberry Studios, so yeah, you’re awesome. Just wanted to make sure you knew that.

Ok, I had more reflections I wanted to share today, but this is getting a bit too long 😀 so I’ll parse it out later.

Have a cuteness filled day!

xo

ps. my mom is coming to visit me next week 🥰 and we’re going to Yellowstone 🌲🦌⛰🐐 our first time!! If you need anything from my shop, come to Fremont Sunday Market today 10-4, or place your order online before Monday and I’ll ship them out before we head out!

Plastic or no plastic? 🤔

business, My Thoughts, Shop, ,

I don’t feel guilty very often.

I know, it’s so un-Japanese of me! But for some reason, I seem to lack the “guilt gene.”

I don’t feel guilty for saying no to dinner invitations if I’ve already had enough social engagement that week (limit up to 2 per week! 🙄)

I say “sorry” if I accidentally step on Dave’s foot – which happens more often than you think because he has big feet 🐾 But I don’t feel guilty because I wasn’t trying to hurt him on purpose.

I eat donuts 🍩 and french fries 🍟 without feeling guilty because they taste good and bring me joy.

I take responsibility for my actions and face consequences, but as long as my motivations are not malicious, I don’t feel guilty.

BUT.

There’s something I’ve been feeling guilty about for quite some time…

Can I tell you what’s been killing me inside slowly?

It’s having to package my greeting cards in plastic sleeves.

Yes, it’s there for a good reason. Mostly to protect my goods from the oils on our skin (and the worst offender, children with candy-covered fingers, I see you!! 👦🏻🧒🏻🍭)

But they’re BAD for the environment. Period.

I’m not one of those people who preach zero plastic use. I’m surrounded by it every day in our home, vehicle, clothes, etc. It’s so convenient and useful, I can’t imagine how we can or want to go back to not having it at all?

I do try to minimize the use of single-use plastic (e.g. food wrap) and try to reuse or recycle our plastic stuff as much as we can.

{I made these waxed fabrics to cover foods in the fridge a few years ago and love them!}

Greeting cards are by far my best selling products. I sell so many of them and use tens of thousands of plastic sleeves every year.

Even the plastic sleeves come in their own plastic bags. Ugh 🤦🏻‍♀️

I know my decision to use plastic sleeves or not won’t make a significant impact on the environment as a whole. I’m such a small fish in a big, big ocean.

But I want to be more mindful and feel good about every aspect of my business.

(At least all my cards and envelopes are made from 100% recycled content 🌱)

So I’ve been asking myself, do they need to be in a plastic sleeve?

The short answer is, of course, “no.”

There are lots of other companies who sell their cards naked.

(This may not be something you ever notice, either – I never paid attention to whether a card was sleeved or not before I started selling my own.)

I’m aware that there are biodegradable sleeves on the market as well. It’s definitely a more expensive option as you can imagine.

As I head into my busy show season, I’m planning to experiment with not having them in plastic sleeves.

Does it change my customer’s behaviors?

Impact on sales?

Is the disastrous result I imagine (like previously-mentioned sticky-handed-children touching everything in my booth and running away 😱) really going to happen?

I don’t know. I just have to experiment and see.

In a meantime, I’ll be making plastic sleeves “optional” in my web shop!

I currently offer 98 card designs in my shop 😬 and have to add the option individually (as well as editing my product descriptions), so it may be a work in progress for a while, FYI.

(You can always email me and tell me if you don’t need a plastic sleeve before the change is fully implemented!)

Thank you for letting me “think out loud” with you today 😘

xo

ps. Are you easily guilted or not so much? Is there something you’ve been feeling guilty about and want to change?? What’s the hardest part of making that change? Tell me in the comments! I love learning more about you 💗

Tools & Resources to Grow Your Creative Business

business, Services & Tools I use

it's-business-time

I know many of you’re an artist/maker yourself and trying to grow your creative business.

I appreciate it when I learn new resources and tools to grow my business, so I wanted to share some of the resources I’ve found helpful.

This is kind of a random list, but I hope you find some of these helpful 😀

If you’re considering wholesaling your arts/crafts to retail shops:

  • Megan Auman’s “How to Sell Your Products to Retailers” online class on CreativeLive – an artist friend of mine recommended this class to me, and WOW was she right. This is solid gold and worth every single penny. It’s quite extensive and detailed and packed with actionable steps to make your wholesale business successful. At the time I’m writing this blog post, I’ve probably only watched 50% of the contents (it’s very long), but I’ve already made a return on my investment by implementing one thing I learned in the class. You need to watch this if you’re curious about wholesale!
  • Etsy Wholesale – As a small creative business owner, I rely so much on Etsy to sell my products online. I know it’s not perfect (my biggest pet-peeves being you have to compete with so many people who sell similar products at a really low price.) and I’d like to have my own online shop someday, but for now it’s working. Etsy also offers a platform to wholesale to retailers, which I’m considering applying for. I also learned a lot about wholesale policies and pricing from just reading their Wholesale Guide.

If you’re struggling with copy-writing:

  •  Laura Belgray’s website, Talking Shrimp – I first discovered Laura on a webinar she did on copy-writing. She’s so hilarious and her materials offer lots of real-life stories and examples that will make you cry with laughter. When you sign up for her newsletter on her homepage, you’ll get a free cheatsheet for writing your tagline. I look forward to her newsletter, too, because it always makes me laugh 😀 and I need laughter in my life more often!

If you get distracted by too many blog articles and online resources when you should be getting other work done:

  • Pocket app – Pocket is awesome for saving articles and online classes to watch later. I often get sucked into the interweb’s rabbit hole when I’m supposed to be getting my other work done.It usually starts out when I’m checking my email in the morning.I’d open one newsletter from a creative business blogger I like and starts reading the post. And I find a link to another article that sounds intriguing like “5 signs you need to redesign your website immediately!” I click on that and start reading another article…and another… Before you know it, you’re overwhelmed with more marketing strategies to implement and worksheets to fill out… Wait, what was I supposed to do today? 😀
    With one click of a button, you can save the articles and webpages on your Pocket app! I usually try to set aside a couple of hours a week to read and learn new things, and having everything in one place is really helpful. I can pick and choose what I want to learn depending on what mood I’m in and how much time I can spend.

If you use Instagram for reaching your audience and want to up your game: 

  • Meighan O’Toole’s blog – Meighan is an online creative business strategist and offers lots of free and paid resources for creative business owners. She doesn’t just talk about Instagram, but I read this blog article “9 Tips to Create a Cohesive, Branded Instagram Feed” and learned a bunch!
  • Link In Profile – It lets you add links to your Instagram images and send your followers to where you want them to go. I’ve just ended my 30-day free trial, but it’s seriously saving me time and I enjoy not stressing about updating the clickable links on my Instagram profile every day! I just signed up for a personal plan (it’s $9.99 per month after the trial period.) It’s a little difficult to explain in writing how it works – you can view my Instagram profile to try it out yourself 🙂
  • Alex Tooby‘s free Instagram tips & e-course – Alex offers free and paid services to increase your engagement and profits on Instagram. Her free offerings include Must-Know Insta Tips eBook, 7 Day e-Course, and IG Supremacy Checklist. I took her 7 Day e-Course and learned a few new tricks on using hashtags!
  • Later‘s blog – Later is an app/service that lets you schedule and manage your Instagram posts. OK, full disclosure, I’ve had Later account for a long time but haven’t used it as a scheduling tool (yet). BUT I learn so much from their blog posts! Just this morning, I got this post 9 New Instagram Features You Probably Missed in my email inbox. Totally useful information for someone who uses Instagram for their business (like me!) The Ultimate Guide to Using Instagram Hashtags was also pretty awesome and I recommend it to my friends all the time!

Ok, that’s it for today! Do you use any of these? What other tools, articles, classes do you find helpful? Please share in the comment below!

Thank you ❤

p.s. I’m gonna be on my sabbatical week off this coming week! My good friend is visiting me from Japan, and I’m super excited to hang out with her 🙂 You’ll probably see a couple of blog posts from me, though, about my winter holiday collection release (yay!) but won’t see my regular post until the following Sunday, November 13th. Just FYI!

xo Yuko

Yuko Miki Honeyberry Studios Headshot

 

I quit my day job one year ago!!

business, Growth & Development, My Thoughts

July 31st was my one year anniversary of quitting the regular day job! Whoa!

Happy first birthday to an-independent-artist/entrepreneur-me 🙂 I’m still here, alive and kickin’!

cupcake_watercolor and pen drawing

I honestly can’t believe it’s been a year, and I just feel so grateful and privileged to be able to pursue my passion every day.

When I left my day job, I gave up a steady paycheck and good benefits. And in return, I gained the freedom to create work from my passion and decide how I’m going to achieve my goals.

And, I love being my own boss. For the most part anyway.

But one of the hardest part of being my own boss is – well, not having a boss.

What does a boss do? They give you a guidance, direction, support and a feedback. Well, at least they should, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have bosses who did all those things 🙂

And it can be extremely difficult to do that for myself sometimes.

Especially when you work so hard and don’t see the results right away, not getting that constant validation and encouragement that your’e doing a good job can be tough.

You're-doing-a-great-job-sketchbook_1000px

I’d imagine many entrepreneurs feel this way. Or if your’e a parent or a boss’s boss. It gets lonely up here!

You know another thing I miss about the day job? An annual performance review!

Is that weird? I always felt so refreshed after my review. It’s a wonderful opportunity to sit and reflect on all the things you’ve accomplished and set an intention for where you want to go next.

So I wanted to review my last 12 months and share with you what I’ve learned.

What I’m proud of:

  • Started taking mini sabbaticals every 7 week. I believe self-care is super important and wanted to put a regular self-care practice in place to prevent burn-out.
  • Did 5 art shows
  • Ran the Creative Coaching 4-week email course and a pilot program
  • Have been meeting with 2-3 accountability partners regularly to stay focused and motivated on my goals
  • Consistently writing & posting blogs and newsletters
  • Launched my first art collection, Eat a Rainbow, this summer
  • Started teaching Introduction to Block Printing workshops locally
  • My revenue grew almost 5x from the same time frame between 2014-2015
  • My work was featured in Seattle Magazine and Uppercase newsletter (and a couple more in the works! Yay!)
  • Created my first video tutorial and taught in an e-course, the Journey Within
  • Partnered with Sakura of America to produce 5 tutorial videos (launch dates TBD)
  • Participated in 10 arts & craft shows
  • Made 4 times more sales on my Etsy store alone
  • Grew my social media followers by 200%
  • Joined the gym and consistently working out
  • Went to a 10-day silent meditation retreat and continuing my daily meditation practice
  • Started selling my products at 5 retail store locations

What I could do more or better:

  • Create sustainable cashflow strategies & implement it!
  • Create a better, more streamlined system for marketing
  • Explore new social media platform (e.g. Snapchat etc.) so I can interact  with my followers more deeply
  • Continue prioritizing my health and wellness and take regular sabbaticals
  • Allow time for reflection and long-term strategies (every quarter or 6 months?) even if everyday busyness seems more urgent.
  • Narrow down my focus
  • Become more comfortable with taking a risk, don’t be afraid to make a mistake, and if I make a mistake, don’t dwell on the negatives. Learn the lessons, and move on!
  • Prepare better financially for slow times (e.g. In-person teaching is super slow during summer so maybe do more shows to create a better cash flow).
  • Expand my wholesale capacity and partner with more retail shops
  • Expand my teaching offerings both in-person & online

What I want to learn:

  • Research and learn more about product business/manufacturers/wholesale, to make my biz more profitable
  • Effective social media marketing strategies & apps
  • How to make better videos and shoot photos
  • Sewing and more fun creative projects for myself!

Next Step:

  • I’ve made an appointment with myself later this week to sit down and do a planning session for the next 6 months. I’m going to figure out timelines for my goals, break down my goals into baby steps, and make a plan of attack!

I was surprised that it didn’t take very much time to make a list of my accomplishments. It’s so nice to remind myself that I am moving forward even if the progress seems slow.

If you don’t have a boss to give you a performance review, I highly recommend you do this with yourself at least once a year. I bet you’ll feel inspired and motivated by how far you’ve come, too!

xo Yuko

Yuko Miki Honeyberry Studios Headshot

 

3 advices my business mentor gave me so I won’t go out of business

business, Growth & Development, My Thoughts, ,

banana-split_watercolor illustration

I met with a SCORE mentor the other day and got a few helpful business advice. (And no, it has nothing to do with banana split… :D)

SCORE (https://www.score.org) is a non-profit association that provides free or low-cost resources for small business owners, including free one-on-one mentorship from an experienced business owner.

I’ve known about them for many years but never used their services before. I just recently decided to take advantage of their offerings after reading a very informative newsletter from Meighan O’Toole and her positive experience working with the SCORE mentors.

I’ve been feeling a bit lost in my creative business lately and thought talking with an objective business mentor would be a good thing!

So I contacted them through their website and made an appointment to meet with a volunteer business mentor, Bernard, at their downtown Seattle office.

Bernard has been a mentor for 13 years and has built a very successful real estate business. I was a little surprised to be matched up with someone whose experience is in a totally different area. But he’s helped his wife grow her art business and has lots of artists in his family, so he was familiar with many of the struggles I’ve been experiencing as a new-ish creative business owner.

You might remember in January I spoke with a business coach and decided to focus on increasing the sales of my art products this year. (I talked about my process in this post if you’re interested.)

Though I still prefer making and selling art to be my main income source, I quickly realized running a product-based business is very expensive!

It requires certain up-front cost to have an inventory of products to sell, and it could take a long time before you actually start making a profit.

My sales have been increasing gradually over the last year (yay!), but I’ve been constantly running out of money to restock my products on the shelf (boo!)

It feels like I have an expensive hobby rather than a thriving and profitable business. Yikes. 

I knew I needed to shift my focus and try to meet my short-term financial goals so I’m not actively going out of business!!

I shared my thoughts and feelings with Bernard, and he validated what I was going through. And that validation right there helped ease my anxiety quite a bit. I tend to think and analyze things very deeply in my head, and it gets overwhelming! Even one small external validation helped take the pressure off my overworked brain and offered me a sense of clarity.

After hearing my pain points, he gave me 3 pieces of advice:

Advice #1. Expand teaching to increase the cash flow.

Doing more client work is one option to fix the cash flow problem. You do the work, get paid, and move on, right? It’s a lot more straightforward than building a successful product-based business for sure…

But I hate client work.

OK, hate is a strong word… it’s just not my favorite. I talked about my high sensitivity and the struggles I have with conflict and rejection in this post, but making art that needs to align with someone else’s vision is very stressful for me.

I love working on a commission where the client trusts my process 100% and gives me a total creative freedom. It happens, but it can be a lot of work to build that kind of relationship with a client, and I sometimes wonder if it’s worth all the stress…

Teaching can also be a good source of income for an artist. 

And teaching is definitely a better fit for me. It gives me an outlet for creativity and also satisfies my need to help people 🙂 As an independent teacher, I have a lot of freedom to decide what/when/how to teach, and I can experiment to improve my students’ learning experience as I see fit.

[My Follow-up Action] I’ve reached out to a few more art schools and art supply stores to inquire about teaching opportunities. My block printing workshop has been my bread and butter lately, and I have more ideas of what I could be teaching in the future. Helping people realize their creative potential is so rewarding!

Advice #2. Have my greeting cards and art prints available at more retail shops. 

Bernard suggested I identify retailers who serve my target audience and pitch them my products to provide more buying opportunities to my potential customers. It turns out his wife is a jewelry maker, and he’s done in-person marketing and promotion going to galleries and shops door to door to sell her work.

Making cold calls/visits give me an anxiety – you know, I’m an introvert and am NOT comfortable with that kind of marketing! 

I’d toyed with the idea of wholesaling my goods before but never took any action to move it forward. I just didn’t feel ready. I felt overwhelmed thinking up all the “what-ifs” – what if a major retailer wants to order thousands of my cards?? I can’t afford to fill that big of an order! And what if nobody wants to sell my products?? Sad face… 😦

While it’s fine to be cautious, I realized neither scenario was likely… 😀 I realized I had to start somewhere. I can start small, which has been my motto since I started my art business.

[My Follow-up Action] I’ve made contact with 5 retailers (galleries, gift shops, art museum etc.), introduced myself, and dropped off samples or emailed them my product info. And I already got 2 wholesale and 1 consignment accounts that want to carry my cards and prints! YAY!

It felt awkward to walk in to someone’s space and pitch my work at first, but really, you’re just asking a question. AND if your products are a good match, you’re actually helping to make their customers happy, which is what the retailers want! So it’s a win-win 🙂

I reached out to retailers that I’ve been admiring a lot – they carry beautifully designed, unique, and high quality products for home and gifts. And when they tell me they like what I create and want to carry them, I feel like I’m walking in the clouds 🙂 Such a nice validation and a confidence booster!

Advice #3. Lower the cost of production to increase the profit margin.

This is like  – duh, but something I’ve been putting off tackling because it’s overwhelming to think about.

Since I don’t have a ton of cash to invest in up front, I end up just ordering small quantities of my products from the printers and keep ordering more as I sell more. I also want my products to be high quality, so the cost of production tends to be higher. Naturally, my profit margins are pretty slim especially when I do wholesale or consignment where I usually get 50% of the retail price.

I don’t want to compromise the quality of my products and can’t afford to have a huge inventory right now.

If I could order my products in thousands at a time, it will save on the cost per unit… It’s a conundrum, and I don’t know what to do about at it… :p

[My Follow-Up Action] Well, I haven’t really done anything with this except to casually think about it and then forget about it… I know it’s important for me to figure out the solution, though. If I keep doing what I’m doing, I won’t be able to effectively scale up, or worse, I’ll definitely drive myself out of business!!

I need to sit down and do more research on manufacturers and some serious number crunching. Two things I’m not excited about…but it’s not an option if I want my business to thrive! And if I work on my advice #1 to increase my cash flow, it will naturally help.

Our meeting was short and sweet but very helpful. I left their office feeling motivated and energized! 

Support from family and friends are great – I couldn’t do this without them! No doubt.

But often when I get an unsolicited advice from people I know, I get annoyed and defensive. It’s not that their advice isn’t helpful – it’s more that I’m not ready to hear it. I get vulnerable and insecure. My focus isn’t on what they’re saying or how valid they are. I instead start wondering why they’re giving me the advice when I’m not asking for it. Uh oh, do they think I’m doing a bad job?? Do I need saving??

That’s why I find it so valuable to get an advice from someone who is not emotionally invested in your success.

First of all, I’m less defensive and more willing to listen when I’m actually seeking for an advice. And it’s easier for me to not react emotionally to their feedback when there is a clear expectation of our roles (i.e. a mentor and a mentee). I can accept their input as an objective observation and nothing more. It’s very refreshing!

SCORE has 320+ chapters throughout the US, and you can find your nearest SCORE location here. You can meet with your mentor multiple times, and if your first mentor is not a good fit, you could request to meet with someone else too. They’re there to help!

I’d definitely go back and use their services in the future when I’m faced with new challenges or need a sounding board outside of my regular circle of people again.

Here is to our growth!!

xo Yuko

Yuko Miki Honeyberry Studios Headshot

 

 

My blog is going back to being weekly and here is why

business, My Thoughts

I-heart-blog_1000px

I enjoy blogging a lot.

It gives me a creative outlet that allows me to share and connect with you in a different way than my visual arts do.

Writing used to be a chore, and I avoided it at all cost. After all, I’m a visual artist and why do I need to write anyway, right?

I changed my mind about it and started being more intentional about writing after I listened to this podcast episode of Sean McCabe. Writing bridges the gap between your work and your audience.

So I started writing every day. It was the first thing I did every morning after I left my day job last summer. And as I wrote more, I was able to find my voice and have become more comfortable with writing. It’s just something I do nowadays.

When my friends ask me if I’m making art all the time, sadly my answer is “no.”

I’m writing all the time. Or at least I feel like I’m writing all the time.

Back in January, I set a goal to publish at least 3 blog posts per week. With the new focus on creating more products this year, I felt like publishing an article once a week just wasn’t enough to share my creative process and inspirations, on top of the more self-helpy contents I’d been writing.

I’m a big believer of having multiple blog posts in a queue (in fact that’s my number 1 advice to people who want to start blogging consistently. You can read my other advices here.)

But lately, I’ve been struggling to keep up.

I mentioned in my last post that I had some health challenge, and I also had a cold that put me out of commission for several days. Getting older sucks sometimes…

Coupled with the unexpected health issues, I’ve also been teaching more, and planning, designing, creating, and launching my new product line took up a lot of time and energy during the last few months!!

I write every day, but I’m also writing for different purposes with an increased output for multiple platforms.

For instance, with my new teaching opportunities, I’m writing specific marketing contents for my e-newsletter, web, and social media, including blog posts. And for my product launch, my marketing effort on all the different platforms had to multiply, too!! And it doesn’t just end when it launches, either. (surprise!) It just keeps going… 😀

It’s to say, I’ve been a little behind on my blog writing and ran out of my reserve.

And you know me – I do better with structure and organization, and not having back-ups is very stressful. It takes up a lot of mental space because I’m constantly thinking I need to write my next post, and by the time I write one, it’s published right away, and I’m back to having zero post in my queue.

It’s also given me a pause to ask myself, “How is my blog helping me to reach my bigger goals?”

I know my blog has helped me to build a supportive community of artists and makers, which I appreciate SO much. I just need to take some time to figure out how else my blog is helping me to achieve my bigger goals and also build up enough reserves in the queue.

I also need to find a balance where I can spend enough time and energy to create useful and effective contents for each platform I write on and consistently create a strong body of artwork at the same time.

With that being said, I still want to keep providing you with creative inspirations through my blog!

For now, I’m going back to posting an article once a week.

I might do extra posts here and there depending on what’s going on and if I have a time-sensitive news I want you to know about. I’ll keep you posted on what the future of my blog will be!

Thank you for your understanding and support! I’ll see you soon 🙂

xo Yuko

Yuko Miki Honeyberry Studios Headshot