[DPA Interview] How Alice Lima Reached Freedom in Starting Her Own Digital Stationery Business
From architect to independent designer, Alice Lima has found a way to use her skills to help others while building a life of freedom for herself. As an avid traveler, it can be difficult to find a well-paying job that also provides location freedom– but that’s exactly what Alice has done.
She began as an architect, which meant she already knew how to use InDesign and Adobe Illustrator. With an eye for design and a draw toward the business world, Alice found herself searching for online courses to create journals, planners, and notebooks that promote productivity and encourage well-being and organization.
Her journey to business success began in the comfort of her own home, searching through YouTube videos and looking for guidance on how to get started in digital design. It’s the classic story of starting a business, with an idea and curiosity, except Alice took the leap and went all in.
From there, she discovered The Pink Ink® and read everything available.
Alice found it extremely valuable to learn from other people who did what she was aiming to do, and she ended up investing in a course for two reasons: first, it added a level of structure and organization that held her accountable to working toward her goal, and second, it allowed her to stay within a timeframe and achieve her goal faster.
Alice Lima says in the video:
“There’s a lot of people saying how to do many things online, but they didn’t actually do it. So when I see her [The Digital Planner Academy’s] blog and Instagram account, and products that are created, that makes me feel there’s a safe person to learn from.”
When starting a new business endeavor, or simply learning a new skill, it’s important to find mentors that are sharing tips and information from experience. The Digital Planner Design Academy Program takes useful and relevant teachings from successful digital designers.
Alice says over and over in the video that she loved the course, especially the templates that came with the program (specifically the Airtable Template!). The course provided valuable guidance that isn’t found elsewhere, such as how to properly price products, how to effectively use the design programs, and how to personalize the planners to align with a vision.
She finds the course format easy to follow and helpful in quickly locating necessary information. The videos are short and straightforward, creating a clean and structured way to learn valuable digital design techniques.
One thing that can be noticed about how Alice approached the course is her ability to take what was needed from the videos, but also adjust the advice to her own goals. For example, instead of beginning on Etsy, she went a step further by starting her own brand and website.
Alice not only learned how to create high-quality planners, but she also picked up skills in creating an optimized, visually-appealing website. She saw this as a long-term business venture and treated it as such.
From the beginning, Alice knew she wanted to create and sell digital products as a full time job. That’s why she went above and beyond to form a personal brand. Her brand is called InMotion and her overarching mission is to help people looking to take charge of their lives and take action to create a future that meets their aspirations.
She targets a French-speaking audience of other travelers, solopreneurs, content creators, and digital nomads. Alice Lima works on personal development and well-being in her own life, which helps her stay motivated, focused, and healthy, and she hopes to inspire others to do the same by using her products.
When the time came to officially launch, Alice Lima had put in months of work, from gaining information throughout the Digital Planner Academy videos to designing a website and a product. Her extra due diligence paid off, though. Alice had her first sale within only 2 days!
Alice has taken her ideas and ran with them, encouraging others to do the same. She adds a flair to her products by making them unique and adding personal twists such as promoting to a French market after having lived in Canada.
Along with what she’s learned from the Digital Planner Academy, Alice uses her business skills to grow her brand through paid marketing and other strategies.
It’s impressive to see what she’s achieved, but even more impressive are the benefits that come with her type of work.
She’s now enjoying a life of freedom, with flexibility in location and lifestyle. Each day in Alice’s life looks different. Some days she works more on personal development, others she takes time to rest and rejuvenate.
Alice can fly to different countries and follow routines that work best for her in that period of life– and it’s all because she started her own digital design business.
“That’s a freedom in many ways,” Lima says, “There’s a freedom of being location independent, so I can go and work from wherever I want. Before Brazil I was in Colombia, before that I was in Spain, and before that I was in France. Tomorrow I’ll be in Argentina!”
She can travel to any location she desires without worrying about taking time off or how she’ll make money. Alice makes a good income, and the best part is, she loves what she does!
Her average monthly revenue is 2.5k-3.5k per month, with her highest revenue month reaching 6k! With the addition of location and lifestyle flexibility, what could get better than that?
The diligence in creating a personal brand with a unique website played into Alice’s business success, but ultimately it was her hard work and her openness to learning from the Digital Planner Academy. Anyone can do it, but it takes a level of dedication and teachability that determines the outcome.
“If you do it, you need to be ready to go through everything– to do the work, to stay long hours. This is the most important thing.” Lima provides her own advice to reach success in this field. “If you want to invest, you have to make sure that it’s really important and you are ready.”
While it can sound a bit intimidating, it doesn’t have to be!
Design a life you love with Digital Planner Academy®
The Digital Planner Academy® Course is designed to be straightforward and easy-to-follow, no matter your skill level. Whether you have years of design experience or you’ve never picked up a stylus, the course will provide valuable information that will increase your skills and efficiency, putting you on the path to selling high-quality digital products.
Alice Lima has done it, and so can you!
If you’re interested in learning more about Alice and her brand InMotion, you can follow along on her journey.
Show her some support by connecting on social media and exploring her digital shop.
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/inmotionplanner/
Digital Planner Creatives Directory: https://digitalplannercreatives.com/directory/alice-lima
By applying the strategies learned from Digital Planner Academy®, you can be just like Alice Lima! Learn more about the Digital Planner Academy here
