Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eden Estabrook. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Eden, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?

I have been an English nut my entire life. A lover of books as long as I can remember, I knew from the age of fourteen I was going to pursue a career in the writing field. But I also knew the stigma behind the English major and financial stability, so I decided to pursue a business writing degree, which kickstarted me into the career I still hold today in a 9-5 capacity.

With that said, there was always a part of me that wanted to be a published author. Admittedly, I always thought I’d be an essayist or write adult nonfiction. But then the idea of Arnie the Armadillo Goes to Antarctica came to me one day and after mulling on it for several months, decided that there was no time like the present, and took the plunge into entrepreneurship! My first book launched Nov 1, 2023, and I’m now the proud author of two books going into 2025!

It was a process to learn all the ins and out of bringing a book to life – from where to get ISBNs to finding a quality printer – but I poured hours into networking and personal research to figure out what I needed and here we are!

Eden, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

During the day, I am a marketing communications specialist in the manufacturing industry. I love the industry and what I do, and I see no end in sight to my full-time work in it. Interestingly, a lot of people think my job is an advantage for small business ownership because marketing is such a big part of gaining visibility. And don’t get me wrong, while the marketing knowledge definitely helps, my day job is Business to Business (B2B) marketing and a children’s book is Business to Consumer (B2C).

Those are two very different types of marketing that leverage different strategies, and I’ve had a lot of learning to adapt the knowledge I have from my 8+ years of experience doing B2B marketing and applying it to my work for Arnie the Armadillo!

With that said, I’ve only known the 9-5 life, which involved full teams of people, and there were a lot of challenges to learning to navigate a business solo. Especially since my primary skill was communications and there are a lot of facets to business ownership that doesn’t include that skill, including inventory management, production of the book itself, finances/accounting, etc.

To this day, I still run the business nearly by myself, and I still work full time on top of it! So, there has been a lot of learning on how to prioritize tasks, while still honoring all the commitments and needs of the business. I’ve been learning what areas of the business I can ask for help, and from that, the importance of building a small business network to get that help from! I recently brought on support for my social media platforms, as I realized that social media was something I couldn’t give enough attention due to my full-time work and was able to be outsourced! That was a big step for me in my business, especially since I don’t always like to admit I need help sometimes.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being visible! A mistake I see with a lot of authors is that they publish the book, step back, and then hope for the best. But publishing the book itself is almost the easy part! Getting people to want to purchase it is the hard part!

I hustled for the first full year of my business to just be visible in my local community – from being at bookstores for book signings to attending kid-centric events to just attending general networking events and meeting other business owners. Coming into Year 2 of the business, I see the fruits of that labor.

I also work very hard to be a valuable partner to my community partners. This includes supporting them by engaging with them on social media, making it easy for them to promote events, and even coming up with ways to draw crowds for events we’re teaming up on. I’ve received feedback that the effort goes a long way for partners stores, who are all small businesses themselves!

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I definitely felt the love from my customer base when I launched my second book! When I launched my first book, not only did I meet a lot of parents and customers during my many events, but I also talked to a lot of new customers through Instagram DMs and those relationships resurfaced when my second book hit the market. Ultimately, I recommend taking the time to meet the people who are buying your book and finding ways to engage with them outside of the initial purchase. It makes a difference! I know when I release I third book, I’ll have some very excited customers!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.meetarnie.com
• Instagram: @arniethearmadillo

Image Credits

All images courtesy of Jordan G Photography