We were lucky to catch up with Anastasia Saenz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anastasia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

It was a rollercoaster of a ride trying to get customers to visit my store. For a while the business felt like crickets, where hardly anyone was shopping. Then, one day during mid-summer, I got a message from a teacher asking if I could create customized headers for her Happy Planner. I said of course, and from there she gave me a brief description of what she wanted and I created a customized draft order for her to view. She instantly loved what I created. I then printed the order and shipped it to her. I will always remember this customer because I had a wonderful feeling of helping another teacher like myself. I feel it’s important for us teachers to stay organized in order to get through our busy and often hectic schedules. Another reason I will not forget this customer is because a week or two later she messaged me back asking if I would be able to make another customized order, but this time for her teacher buddies. With my passion to help other teachers, I immediately said “yes”! Because of this customer, I began offering customized teacher headers as a regular item every late spring to summer in my store.

Anastasia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an Art teacher and a small, online business owner in San Antonio, Texas. I began teaching Elementary Art nine years ago and have loved it ever since. My goal is to teach young artists new and exciting ways to be creative. With my busy teacher schedule, it’s important for me to stay organized on a daily basis. When teacher planners became popular, I realized how useful they can be to my career and daily life. However, I realized no one had any stickers that were good enough for my teaching purposes. The stickers were either too generic or were meant just for Generalist teachers and made me feel as if Art education wasn’t important. This was a long time problem in the teacher planner world, so I decided to create my own stickers for Art teachers and for other specialists. I want readers to know we, as teachers, are passionate about our profession. No matter what subject or elective we teach, we put all our hearts and souls into our professions to help our students succeed. My brand gives teachers an artsy vibe to their busy daily schedules. Rather than just jotting down notes with a pen and easily losing track of their important to-do lists, meetings, or even when it’s a jean day, my bright and colorful stickers can bring their planners to life.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

As a new business owner without a background in marketing, it was a struggle to find the right audience for my shop. I first started with Instagram and just randomly started following things I was interested in, like cat moms and other various planner businesses that didn’t connect very well with the teacher world. With no photography experience, I didn’t showcase my products in a decent setting. I didn’t have proper lighting, my backdrops were plain, my setup space lacked purpose, and most importantly, I was not consistent with my social media posting. I believed social media in the business world would have been easy, but to be honest, it required a whole new level of work and was a major learning process. One thing I have learned so far is that it’s very time consuming. It’s pretty much a full time job to post new products, upcoming sales, and upcoming market days, and with me being a full time Art teacher, it’s been a huge challenge to get my business name out there to an audience. Although it’s been a challenge for me, I’ve found social media to be a positive experience as well. Through social media, I was lucky enough to find a local network with other small business owners in San Antonio who were just starting their business like me. Being able to connect with a group like minded people, fellow entrepreneurs, people with more skills in social media, and people who were truly passionate about their career and business and being able to see the joy in their faces helped me strive to be my best, boosted my confidence, and gave me the courage to not fear putting myself out there in the social media world.

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

I sell my teacher products through Etsy as well as through my own website on Shopify. When I first began my small business journey, I started on Etsy. I started here because it was a well-known company and I trusted them enough to feel comfortable posting my own, unique products. They gave me step-by-step instructions on how to set up my store and gave me special tips to make my shop look professional. They also have a community where I could ask other shop owners to critique the look of my shop, ask business related questions regarding taxes and shipping, and read through other good resource for learning how to successfully get my store up and running.

A few years later, I decided to branch out and to create my own website through Shopify. It is a great tool for learning how to create a customized website. It allows me to lay out my shop in a more personalized manner than Etsy allows. With Etsy I have to follow their default template. With Shopify, there are dozens of templates to choose from that I can further customize to meet my needs. I have more control and flexibility to create my brand by creating my own font styles, color schemes, and layout options for product images. The most fun part for me was being able to create my own domain name, “Planning is my Therapy”.

I will say, I like both of them for their own purposes. Etsy is better for beginners and it’s a well trusted platform amongst the general population and so it will be bring visitors to your shop easier. After getting enough experience running your business through Etsy, if you feel comfortable creating your own website, then Shopify is a great tool to use. Just remember though, that it needs a lot of attention and a well thought out marketing plan in order to bring in customers. It will take a lot of effort, but it will pay off in the long run because you will better develop your brand, become a better web designer, a better marketer, and gain more confidence in yourself as a true business owner.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.planningismytherapy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artsoultx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100054598563751
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/artsoultxdesign/ LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/planningismytherapy Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtAndSoulTXDesign