We recently connected with Adreyauna Lewers and have shared our conversation below.
Adreyauna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?
Owning and running a business is to be accepting of failures. At least that’s what I tell myself when I think about the time I hired a marketing consultant and didn’t follow the plan she custom designed for me! So it was around spring 2023 that I started working with a consultant who focused on small businesses that are impact-driven. We spent 3 months designing, editing, and creating a plan of action for me to implement in the rebranding of my business, Ink to Prosperity. She had done a wonderful job of listening to what I wanted and crafting a launch plan that felt authentic to me and my business. We’re talking a day by day launch plan that also included rest time for me. So boom, launch day comes and I follow the plan. The engagement on social media was pretty good considering I hadn’t posted in months. That gets me excited to batch create a few more videos…which is where things got sticky. I was so used to posting “in the moment” and batch creation had me feeling some type of way. But I couldn’t let my consultant down, so I persevered and created a couple videos. We had a 30 day plan and I only made it 1/3 of the way through when I got discouraged. The goal of the launch was to have 25 people sign up for a subscription to my monthly community circle, Soul Support. I was stressing about signups and the curriculum content even though I had received 11 signups. So I stopped posting. To make matters worse, my 3 month contract with the consultant was up and I couldn’t afford to pay for another 3 months. Everything was crashing at one time and my perfectionism couldn’t handle more disappointment. So I turned my attention to the 11 people that signed up for Soul Support and started to get to know this new community. In hindsight, I should have kept going. I should have let myself be scared but still consistent. That’s what I tell my clients to do, so why was it so hard for me? Part of me recognizes that I probably overloaded my plate and should have just focused on the rebranding instead of rebranding AND launching a new service. At the time, I wanted to prove that I could make it all work and that ego feed is ultimately what led to my failed launch plan. But to take it even further, through feedback and listening I learned that the curriculum I was planning wasn’t designed for the community I had called in. The people that had signed up weren’t my target audience for Soul Support and that was okay! It was okay but it allowed room for me to serve the people that were present instead of trying to find the people I intended to reach. I decided to surrender. Because of that, we ended up having a really beautiful 6 months together. A bonus from the failed launch is that the work of the consultant still sits in my Google Drive, waiting for me to get the courage to fulfill it properly.
Adreyauna, 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?
Ink to Prosperity is a vow and a testimony. I2P provides personal and career development for black and brown heart-led leaders and entrepreneurs. The founder, Adreyauna, strives to decolonize the healing space while bringing guidance that is practical, authentic, and heart-led. We seek to use the ink we wield to secure prosperous opportunities that are ancestrally ingrained in our DNA.
I believe that we are all magical and we come to this life to master certain lessons. My gift is to coach you through those lessons and be an open channel for Divine guidance to shine through. My creed as a psychic adviser is to be curious, resourceful and expansive.
The work my clients and I do together is sacred and guided by faith. Faith in yourself, faith in me as your advisor, and faith in your spirit team. Working with black and brown individuals requires a level of surrender that only can be supported by the ancestors so that is why I often bring ancestral practices to my sessions and classes. Healing is ever-changing and continuous, no one knows that better than the ones that came before us.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
I created a deck of affirmation cards in 2021 called Love Note To Self. Creating the deck was the easy part. But working with a manufacturer was new, scary, and intimidating. So I started looking up some of my favorite tarot decks to see if they had any manufacturers listed on their boxes/websites. That was pretty unhelpful because no one mentioned their manufacturer. I knew they weren’t getting them made at Staples so I googled tarot card sizes, tarot card manufacturers, and learned that most tarot cards are made in the same place as playing cards. Jackpot! From there I found 3 websites and was even able to order a sampler of cardstock to test the products. Because my decks allowed customers to put their names into the cards, I needed a manufacturer that could print one deck instead of being locked into only multiples. That left one manufacturer, so I checked their reviews and called their customer service line to get a feel for how they treat new, inexperienced card designers. They passed all my tests with flying colors! It felt like my ancestors were giving me the nudge to finally get this deck out into the world. I ordered my first test product based on my research and what I thought I wanted. It was NOT matching my expectations but after a call with customer service, I learned where I made mistakes with sizing and cardstock options. They gave me some recommendations and then I ordered a new sample deck. It was perfect! So now, I had a physical product to market and it was time to start taking orders. The thing with manufacturing is that if you don’t have the money upfront to buy bulk, your customers have to place their order first THEN you can put in a bulk request. That meant there would be longer wait times for your customers but if they are aware of that beforehand, it makes things a lot better. That also meant I had to learn how to place a price on an individual deck without charging my customers a ridiculous amount of money. I sacrificed making a profit to keep costs low for my customers which meant that I made nothing from the sales of my deck. At that time, it didn’t matter because people were going to have my creation, my art, and my hard work in their hands to be used for a lifetime! That was priceless. Would I do it again? Absofuckinglutely!
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
The first 3 years of my business, I used Etsy for services as well as physical and digital products. At the time, it was the best and easiest option for me to use because it was full of unique seller and there was a market for the type of products I was selling. I started on Etsy in 2019 and was able to healthily manage my shop. In 2020, I got my own website and started feeling a bit overwhelmed with managing two sites but I kept going.
Pros of Etsy: no website needed, real-time product reviews, an established market, competition meant I had to come with my best, being able to offer coupons/discounts to returning customers, easily integrated with my account management system, being able to message back & forth with my customers, the custom ordering setup was great
Cons: too much competition, how much money Etsy takes from their sellers kept creeping up more and more, sellers being able to buy adspace felt unfair, international shipping became more work through the platform than doing it on my own, the shipping label system wouldn’t integrate easily with my labelmaker, having to constantly change up product descriptions and titles to please the algorithm was so time consuming, ultimately it was costing me more to sell on Etsy than it was to run my own shop through Squarespace
Overall, it was a great learning experience and it kickstarted my whole business. However, it wasn’t sustainable or flexible enough for what I wanted to do and I had to let it go.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.inktoprosperity.com/
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/inktoprosperity
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/inktoprosperity
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@inktoprosperity