We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Allison Richmond-Leeth. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Allison below.

Allison, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I believe success is a subjective thing. If your only perspective of success is graphs going up, money overflowing in your pockets, or high sales, that’s your version of success, and a lot of people’s version to be honest. However I, and a lot of small business owners around me, see success a little bit differently. Maybe it’s someone leaving you a really nice message on your post, or finally creating a piece of art that makes you happy.

I’ve spent almost 6 years working on my brand, Soft Peach, and while attempting to do things like run a blog, open an Etsy store, and create comics, I’ve been steadily improving my art and keeping up with my fundamentals. My biggest dream is to make Soft Peach my full time job; it’s a goal of mine to be able to wake up everyday and create art for a community that appreciates my creations. But I feel as though I’ve been successful, not in my business, but in keeping my childlike passions alive.

Despite struggling with job security with the pandemic, cases of imposter syndrome, and life’s many hurdles, I’m grateful that I have my art to fall back on when I’m feeling down in the dumps. While there’s a lot of room for my business to take off, and I’ve not yet reached my goals, I know that I will someday, and the success will be there on paper. I guess “what it takes” to be successful is to never give up on the things that bring you joy, and to have faith in yourself and your skills.

Allison, 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?

Hi there! My name is Allison, but my friends call me Alla (pronounced æ-luh). I’ve been a working artist for 6 years, but I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I graduated with a BFA in Illustration and a minor in creative writing from Columbus College of Art and Design.

As a teenager I loved manga and anime. I had a dream of going to Japan after high school and experiencing that place with my own eyes. Japanese culture has been my biggest inspiration, with many of my art heroes being Japanese. Naoko Takeuchi, Kohei Horikoshi, and CLAMP, just to name a few.

I’ve used my love of creating to start my own small business called “Soft Peach Art”. Its a cute little brand where I can express myself creatively and show my love for anime-style art and comics. I run a small Etsy store where I sell my merch, and I run a webcomic on the side based on my favorite videogame, “Harvest Moon”. I also recently started an apparel line titled “Sissy Pizza Apparel” based on my very own lovable black cat named Sissy.

I love to show off my art brand to as many people as I can around my area, so since 2015, I’ve tabled at multiple conventions and local art shows. My favorites have been Indy Popcon, and SPACE comics expo. Doing artist alley is so much fun, and I get to meet so many interesting people. I also get to experiment with how to display my art, and see the smiles on people’s faces as they look at my work. My hope for this year is to continue doing more and more shows, and even make a new friend from it!

My goal is to make Soft Peach Art my full-time gig, and expand the brand to be more of a “lifestyle” brand. I always have many plans and ideas, but looking forward, I’d like to continue running my shop and my webcomic, and also document my art journey for people who want to follow in my footsteps. I think knowledge and education is very important, and if I can show just one person how to create art in a way they enjoy, then I would be happy.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I’ve been posting on social media for my art since 2015, and I still need tips every now and then! Back then, my main account was on Tumblr, but nowadays, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok are the places I post the most. My community has grown slowly and naturally on Instagram specifically, but I noticed I gained more once I started tabling at conventions and posting more videos.

It’s very hard to figure out the ever-changing algorithm on all of these platforms, so my main piece of advice is to post things that you genuinely like, and give your audience a journey to follow. If you are really trying hard to grow your audience, I suggest posting very frequently, at least once a day on each platform you want to grow, but always remember the quality of your posts. Make sure you brush up on basic photography skills, video editing, etc. that will enhance your posts and help you stand out.

Another big tip is to engage with other creators! Draw inspiration from artists, creators, and brands that are doing things you want to do. There are trends that come and go all the time on the internet, so you can choose to follow them, or even start your own. I believe people are drawn to good energy, even online, so creating a page where people can feel comfortable with your brand, your art, or whatever you do is key.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I started my Etsy shop, “Soft Peachy Art” back in 2018. I tried other platforms including Wix and Shopify, but Etsy has always been the best platform for my business. I am still growing my audience, and Etsy has a built-in clientele that are always looking for creative goods. With Etsy integrating with Square, your in-person sales can sync up with your Etsy, which is very useful for tracking sales.

Lately however, Etsy’s fees have been increased by a substantial amount, forcing me and a lot of sellers to increase prices. Listing fees on top of transaction fees and free shipping can all add up, especially if you are selling smaller items like stickers. It’s one of the reasons I attempted to sell on Shopify last year.

Etsy is also littered with drop-shippers, resellers, and tons of duplicate listings that are saturating the marketplace. The “Star Seller” system that was newly introduced also makes it harder for smaller shops to be seen.

With a lot of cons, I still maintain my shop on Etsy since it is still a growing shop. I have goals to move to a personal website once I hit a certain amount each month.

I do recommend people who want to open a shop to start on Etsy. It’s a great beginner’s website with many tools to help make your shop into what you’ve always wanted it to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://softpeachart.carrd.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/softpeachart/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allasart/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/softpeachart
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@softpeachart Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/softpeachyshop Tapas: https://tapas.io/softpeachart

Image Credits
All photos are taken by me: 1.