Behind the Design Weekly Series: Niche Research & Idea Validation | Episode 1
Welcome back, The Pink Ink® community! Last week, we began an exciting new series that offers insights into the digital planner design process by following a real-life business. The weekly updates will follow Claudia Emanuel, one of our The Pink Ink® team members, as she builds her digital planner business step-by-step, from the concept to the online shop.
This week, we’re taking the first step into the process, beginning with brainstorming. While brainstorming and planning may not seem crucial, you’ll learn through this ‘Behind The Design’ episode why it is and how she accomplished her goals this week. If you’re following along week by week, be sure to come in with an open and creative mind.
This Week’s Goal
This week, we’re starting at the beginning with some brainstorming and planning. It’s the foundation of any project and more necessary than you may realize, as it lays out the groundwork and helps find and organize ideas that may work.
If you’re following Claudia through this journey and keeping up with her in your own life, take this week to begin planning. Write down your interests, desires, goals, strengths, and anything else that comes to mind that may relate to your project.
Claudia used this week to brainstorm ideas to see what could filter into her business. As she thought through her interests and strengths, Claudia discovered that she wants to build a planner for creatives, specifically painters, drawers, and studio artists, but she also realized that she doesn’t have enough knowledge specifically in fine art.
This Week’s Accomplishment
While working hard on the first milestone, Claudia was also working and completing her Italian driver’s license. It just proves that with dedication, you can accomplish building your own business even alongside other aspects of life.
From her brainstorming and reflecting, Claudia accomplished this week’s goal by figuring out where she wants to go with her digital planner business, which will be focusing on a creative audience. She narrowed down her strengths and passions in creative design, which led her down a path of focusing on planners for multi-passionate and creative people.
In her video, Claudia mentions the term “multipotentialite”, which refers to multi-passionate people who have a range of different hobbies, work, skills, and interests. Claudia has been reflecting on her own multipotentialite personality and how many of her varied passions and skills have fallen in the creative arts category, but leaning more toward digital art, photography, film, and creative thinking in online business.
Some of the product ideas she came up with included a Creative Flow Journal, 365 Days of Creative Thoughts, a Multi Passionate Planner, and a Creative Flow Planner. Claudia is thinking about creating the Multi Passionate Planner as the focus, and then launching multiple color bundles. Overall, she’s proud of what she’s accomplished this week and she’s ready for the next step.
Takeaway
In the video, Claudia talks about using the brainstorm session to facilitate a creative flow, or a creative thinking session to map out ideas and projects. Claudia also mentions that it didn’t take her long to brainstorm these ideas, but if she honed in even more, she could come up with even better ideas.
The overarching message from this week is that taking time to brainstorm and plan can make a huge difference in your business or project. Many people are excited to get started, which is understandable, but it leads to individuals rushing through the beginning stages of the project, therefore missing out on valuable insights that could’ve made their business more successful.
Why pursue a mediocre idea when you can be much more successful by putting aside time to brainstorm and reflect? Claudia was able to identify her strengths and interests, which helped her narrow down planner ideas that she’d be knowledgeable in and passionate about. She encourages followers to do the same. We promise you’ll notice a difference in your business.
Tools Used
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Join us on our weekly series by subscribing to follow the blog for updates! We’d love to hear your comments and thoughts on the series, whether on how it’s helped you, where we can improve, or what you’ve learned from Claudia’s story. If you know other entrepreneurs or creatives who could benefit from this series, share this blog post to spread the word and help someone else. We’re excited to take this journey with you. See you next week!
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About The Pink Ink®
At The Pink Ink®, we’ve turned our own digital planner business into a successful enterprise that now teaches others to do the same. Shay established The Pink Ink® in 2018 as one of the first digital planner sellers on Etsy and grew it to help aspiring designers to create, launch, and market their planners to create passive income and diversify revenue streams. Within 2 weeks, her store made its first sale, and within 2 months, it covered Shay’s full-time income!
With our experience and knowledge, we want to watch others reach financial freedom in their own lives and experience the benefits of running an online shop for themselves and loved ones. To read our full story, check out The Pink Ink’s About Us page.
About The Digital Planner Academy® Hybrid Program
The Digital Planner Academy® Hybrid Program is designed to teach other entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners how to create their own digital planners through design software and real-world advice from mentors. We walk students through the process of creating and selling their own digital product from beginning to end with a goal of helping you reach financial freedom.
Every year, we do updates on our customers’ needs and shifts in online business. In 2023, we turned this into a hybrid program where you not only get access to video lessons, but you also receive 1:1 feedback and support from The Pink Ink® team, whether for general support, design ideas, or initial launch.
If you’re ready to get started in building your digital planner business, check out our blog The Digital Planner Academy® Program - the Best Online Course for Aspiring Digital Planner Business Owners and follow along with our weekly Behind the Design series.
The Purpose of This Weekly Series
What exactly is Behind the Design and why did we create it?
Shay was once an aspiring business owner, so she understands the stressful process of building a company from the ground up. Especially as one of the first in her niche, Shay paved the way for other business owners and picked up valuable skills that she now shares with others. She hopes to ignite creativity and help others do the same.
The best way to accomplish this is by demonstrating how it’s done through a step-by-step process– and what better way than to watch an entrepreneur reach success in real-time? There’s potential challenges that lie in the path of any creative individual – it’s inevitable – but it’s important to overcome these obstacles. Following another designer provides motivation to overcome these challenges, practical guidance and advice, and realistic steps and expectations.
Getting started is often the hardest part, but it’s never too late. In fact, now’s the perfect time! Take this opportunity to take the first step and build your business alongside Claudia. You’ll learn so much through this process, and you’ll reap the rewards of hard work and dedication. Let’s take that first leap together!
Join Us on an Adventure
With a goal to empower individuals to unlock their true creative potential like Claudia is doing, The Pink Ink® team is excited to see where this series leads. We invite you to join us on this exciting adventure and take grasp of the unique opportunity provided. With Claudia and The Pink Ink® members at your side, you have the tools and support to achieve success.
To stay up to date with each piece of the series, you can sign up to receive weekly email updates. We’re looking forward to the insights and creativity that each week offers, and we’re excited to welcome you into our community!