We recently connected with Samantha Willis and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Samantha, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

The idea to create and come up with a fun activities children’s book geared towards autism stemmed from me one day looking at my daughter, who at the time was three and a half years old, and wondering to myself how I was going to explain to her, and her inquisitive self, about her brother being autistic and what autism is. I worried as a mother because I feared I wasn’t going to be able to explain thoroughly what the disability consists of in a way that she would understand in a non-medical and technical way. Around that time I had my mother visiting from overseas who enjoyed doing word searches, and she would buy a number of word search books from the supermarket that she would complete during her free time. As I started to think about having this soon to be conversation with my daughter, it dawned on me that it would be cool to create an activities book for kids that was filled with lots of games, puzzles and brain teasers, but at the same time intertwine the education and knowledge of autism throughout the entire book.

In December 2022, I started creating word searches and other sorts of activities from scratch using my favourite design tool Canva. The process was going quite well, but I started to doubt myself a lot and pushed the creation of the book aside. Every now and then it would come back like a boomerang hitting me hard in the head saying, “No, come on, keep going, you can do this!”, and then I would start again, create more activities and puzzles, stop, start again and then eventually push it to the side and out of sight.

February comes along and once again the boomerang hits me upside my head, but this time it was like it said to me, “This is the last time I’m gonna hit you in the head. Keep, keeping on and set a goal to have this done by the first of April.”, which happens to be the beginning of Autism Awareness Month. So, I did just that and I worked really hard, but along the way I developed writer’s block and I didn’t know what other content I could produce to add to the book, for I had a goal to create at least 30 plus pages of fun-filled activities. I took it upon myself to do some research and I went into the magazine aisles of supermarkets and bookstores and read through different types of activity books to get a general idea of the types of puzzles, brain-teasers and games I could create. Buying a happy meal for my child at McDonald’s even helped to relieve me from my writer’s block, for they had these huge and free foldable table posters filled with fun activities and colouring for kids to do. It really brought back memories for me as a child completing similar activities and I was able to get my creative juices flowing once again and finish the book by the first week of March.

I think one of the hardest parts of publishing this book was proofreading and editing the entire book from the beginning to end. It was a lot of work considering the fact that I am a mother of four with all my kids under the age of seven. I had to learn how to prioritise my children’s needs while finding time within the day and night to proofread and make changes to the book whenever an opportunity arose. Not only that, it was very tiresome on my eyes because I didn’t have a second pair of eyes who could thoroughly skim through details of what I possibly missed, such as typos. Everything was me and me alone.

The next process was to publish the book which I chose to publish through Amazon. I had to go through the steps of registering my details as well as uploading the book and having it approved by Amazon. To me that felt like one of the scariest parts of getting this book out because there was always that thought in the back of my mind of whether or not Amazon would approve my book, and if not, what other route could I take to get my book published. My emotions were all over the place. I was stressing, I was fearful, I was excited, but somehow through it all I didn’t give up. I knew even down to the last minute of publishing my book that I was gonna get it done, and I think for me, the strong sense of motivation to do this came from:

1. My faith in God and hearing Him tell me that I can do this; and
2. My autistic son

Autism awareness is crucial in my world because of my son, who I only want the best for and want the world to accept him and his autistic qualities for what they are….beautiful and unique. If I can get this book in the hands of many, who will learn, understand, accept and advocate for autistic individuals. Then I know my work was not in vain.

I’m so amazed at how I published this book on my own, but most of all I am proud of myself for never giving up. All my research, my creativity, my motivation and my tenacity paid off and it is truly one of my proudest moments as a content creator and mother.

Samantha, 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 Canadian but living in the United Kingdom with my husband and 4 wild but amazing children. I’ve always been that ‘think outside the box’ creative risk taker and a ‘Jill of all trades’ who loves entertaining and having fun. My background is in events marketing, but I always had an interest in creative design. I started creating things such as posters, flyers, business cards and invitations for fun using, at the time, Microsoft Publisher. Many people around me were impressed with my work, and before I knew it, I was happily designing all sorts of graphics for them. Then the amazing graphic design tool Canva came out which took me to another level in my designing skills, particularly with social media assets. I absolutely loved creating in Canva and could spend hours designing all sorts of things. Not only that, I developed a craft for designing websites using Wix and have made a few websites for clients ranging from entertainment, real estate and ecommerce. I currently have added social media videography content to my services and have produced a few reels for myself and clients.

For me, when someone gives me a job to do, my goal is to give them beyond what they anticipated to receive. I love it when I produce a design for a client and the look on their face when they see the final product. It brings joy to me because I treat every piece of work with love and passion and always think about my clients needs as well as their audience.

I am proud of anything I put my mind to or anything that people say I can’t do, but can do and do it well. However, at this moment in time I am extremely proud of publishing my first ever children’s activity book based all around autism that was a dedication to my son who is autistic.

I’m looking forward to continuing on my journey to becoming a successful and creative entrepreneur that my followers and fans will love and support. I want to evolve everyday in my skills as a content creator while helping others achieve their goals, dreams, passions and successes in life.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I can’t stress this enough, but the best source of getting new clients is, ‘Word of Mouth’! Pretty much 95% of all my jobs have come from someone who saw or used my services and suggested to someone else to use me. I am big on supporting people and their businesses, dreams, goals and aspirations. You have something you’re creating, promoting or selling? I’ll be there spreading the word through my social media channels and word of mouth. So, it means the world to me that people, including family and friends, support me and my work because you’ll never know who might need my services and help to catapult my success even further.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being blessed to have a mind that thinks big and outside the box as well as seeing my skills develop in my innovative, bold and daring self. I never have to go to someone to create or design something that’s in my head. I have the ability to think it, design it and make it come to life. I don’t have to ask for edits or wait for a design to be completed. I just do it when I’m good, well and ready. It’s really a blessing to have this artistic capability because if I didn’t, I probably would be broke from spending all my money on someone else to do it for me. LOL

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.creativesbysamantha.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativesbysamantha/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativesbysamantha
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@creativesbysamanthaxo
• Other: My Published Children’s Book: https://amzn.eu/d/iWzajRG Redbubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/CreativesbySam Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Shopcreativesbysam