Hi. I’m Kathryn, and I’m starting over.
I’ve been thinking about the best way to formulate this post, but I’ve come to the conclusion that if I don’t just dive in and start typing then I’m going to severely overthink it, so here we go.
Without going into detail, I’m a fucking mess of a human and this is my third attempt at blogging and starting a creative business. This time, however, I feel that it’s different because it’s actually mine.
What I mean by that is that I have spent the majority of my life being a diehard people pleaser. It was bad. This carried over into everything I did — including my creativity.
A few years ago, I got to a point in life where I had to have some sort of outlet so I could get out of my head — so I started painting. This hobby quickly became a business, and it was well-loved for a while. I even opened an Etsy shop, initially titled Nap Time Acrylics.
Then I invested in a vinyl cutter. I taught myself everything I possibly could about graphic design and I expanded Nap Time Alternative into Nap Time Design Co. — a place for custom gifts AND abstract artwork. When I tell you that this business took off so fast that it literally controlled my life, I’m not even remotely exaggerating. I suddenly became a one-person successful business. I was working 80 hour weeks making amazing money, but never had time for anything else. I had help from friends and family here and there, but it was mainly just me doing everything from creating, customer service, blogging, promoting, shipping, etc.
By the time I got pregnant with my daughter, I was totally burned out. It was a combination of the long hours, the soul-draining side of customer service (98% of customers were so great to work with but the 2% that were rude to me would fuck with me mentally after a long day of work), AND the fact that everything I was doing was custom — so a vast majority of the things I was making, I didn’t necessarily like. And yeah, that’s part of running a business — but I never intended for this to be something I do full time. It started as a hobby and fun side gig to help with my mental health, and my inability to say no to people led me into a field where all of my work was focused on styles that were not my own.
I shut it down for a while so I could reassess. My daughter was born, and I took time to soak in the newborn phase — but Nap Time Design Co. was always in the back of my mind. I knew I needed to do something with it — I just didn’t know what.
Enter: Digital Planning.
Thank to YouTube, I discovered a hobby that was, at the time, incredibly new and super interesting. It combined creativty, planning, and scrapbooking — things I actually enjoy doing. I picked this up as a hobby and quickly became obsessed. I became SO obsessed that I wanted to share it with the world — so I started making youtube videos showing people how I use different art apps for digital planning — I also started making and selling digital planners.
Again, my youtube channel quickly took off which led to major sales of my planners. I loved it for two reasons — I was designing products for myself that other people also found useful, so I could make something once and sell it over and over again as a digital download. I formed friendships and for the first time in years, felt like I was part of a community with other creatives. I was working on my own terms and things were so good for a while.
Then digital planning started getting more and more popular. My youtube channel had grown significantly and was monetized by YouTube after a few months of regular uploads. Because of this, I became a person people would turn to when they had questions about digital planning.
Once again, I was dealing with another business that took off much faster than I had ever imagined — AND my desire to people please and my inability to say no led to my downfall. I wasn’t fully authentic in my own videos. I was EXTREMELY censored out of fear of offending anyone or getting negative comments. There was a never-ending stream of emails ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I’d spend an entire day just answering e-mails. I also filmed, edited, and posted all of my own videos (some of which were upwards of an hour), promoted it via social media all on my own, blah. You get the idea.
Needless to say, burnout happened. This time, burnout was hitting around the same time that covid was beginning.
2020 was life-changing for all of us and I was already at one of my lowest points when Covid hit.
So once again, I shut things down to reevaluate.
During this time, I was also going through major life changes and I was regularly seeing a therapist. I was so fucking unhappy. I didn’t know what needed to change, but something needed to change. After A LOT of time and therapy + medication — a lot changed in my personal life, and honestly, my perspective of the world around me started to shift for the better.
I came to the conclusion that I do have a knack for business and creativity, but I was never going to be happily successful if I didn’t start putting myself first.
Introducing Kathryn Chill Print Co.
This is centered around things that I want to create and enjoy creating. I outsource a lot of my printing work so I can spend more time creating. Kathryn Chill Print Co. AND this blog are all about self-love, acceptance, feminism, mental health, and humanness… and it centers around all things pink.
And even if I don’t end up with success this time around, that’s ok because for the first time ever — everything I’m creating is mine.
If you enjoy it, please stick around. I’d love to be friends!
xoxo, Kathryn
