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

Taylor, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.

Since re-branding and re-opening my e-commerce store in 2021, I’ve been working towards being able to donate a portion of our profits to our local animal rescues. I often felt like an imposter not only because I was doing this new-to-me business structure, but I also kept telling people my intentions of donating despite the fact that I hadn’t donated a cent.

For the first few months, I felt like it was logistically impossible for me to donate anything because my profit margins were already slim and I could barely pay myself. I would often get really upset with myself and wonder why I even told people I was doing this in the first place. I thought everyone would just laugh at me when I publicly failed and fell flat on my face.

Despite the growing doubts and fear, I decided that I needed to really commit whole heartily. I had been talking about a big game and had big dreams, but I was playing small. I took out a small personal loan to fund new products, market booth setup, and market fees. It was terrifying. It honestly still is.

However, I now do at least 2 markets a month now with my biggest in-person market ever coming up with an estimated crowd of 30,000+. The new customers and connections I’ve met are turning into online sales. I’ve raised my prices, invested in brand photography, and have begun sending out wholesale packages in the hopes of having my products in-store across the US.

As of April, I’ve been able to donate almost 10% of my profits to 3 local rescues across my community. It’s still not much money, but I already feel so accomplished in the fact that I can finally proudly say that my business helps animals in need. Just last week, I went and bought some cat food to donate to our animal shelter. They told me they were almost out and really appreciated it. Also got to play with kittens, so that was a nice benefit!

All to say that I would have never been able to start giving back if I didn’t fully commit to my business and worked hard knowing that I could help my community if I continued to grow. I’m just so grateful that I get to have this job.

Taylor, 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’ve been an artist since I could hold a pencil. I’ve always gotten those cheesy art kits for Christmas, did all the art electives in K-12, and started proclaiming to the world that I was going to work at Disney in middle school. Spoiler alert: I do not work at Disney.

I ended up going to college for a traditional art with a major in watercolor. It was great for the first semester, but it just didn’t feel right. I started wondering if my dreams just weren’t meant to be. I didn’t feel excited to paint anymore and everything felt wrong in a way. I ended up taking a Photoshop class my second semester with an older professor who didn’t even know how to open the program. I luckily made friends with the girl beside me who knew enough to teach me. We ended up becoming friends and she told me that she was going to transfer to another local college to do animation. My mind was blown. I had no idea that we had stuff like that around here. I couldn’t really afford to go to an out-of-state college, so I thought I just had to settle for what I could afford. I started touring the other school and ended up making friends with the advisor, who ended up giving me my first college job. One semester later, I entered Virginia Tech as a transfer student going into creative technologies.

I ended up doing all kinds of cool things in various mediums. I did everything from hand-mixed egg tempera paintings, laser cutting fabric, graphic design for social, motion capture of 3D animation, and the list goes on and on. I got to try almost anything and everything I ever wanted. In my last two years, I fell in love with motion graphics and spent a lot of my time animating in After Effects. It all just felt right. I had always thought you had to specialize in a medium to be successful, but experimenting with new things every other day has always felt right for me. While I definitely have more expertise in certain things like motion graphics, I love that my job allows me to wear as many hats as I want. It can be overwhelming, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I also feel like loving to experiment in art has led me to my current career. To quickly sum it all up, I own a small cat-themed gift shop called Daisy & Emma’s Stray Shop, I work as a freelance illustrator and motion designer, I’m a Skillshare top teacher, and I co-own another virtual reality company called Aperture. My main focus is my shop and my teaching, but I’ve definitely committed to the many hats metaphor. I love routine in my day, however, I don’t want to do the same thing every day if that makes sense. Right now, my days can vary from drawing cats in a taco shell for a coloring book to creating 3D exhibits for the Smithsonian to filming a class on how to animate in Procreate.

I think the thing I’m most proud of though is my ability to shift what success means to me. Young me would have been dead set on working at Disney as the only option and marker of success. While I would love to still try to do that one day, I’ve just been really fortunate to try the things that excite me every day. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but I’m always grateful that I have the support to try. I truly wouldn’t be able to do this with my mom, brother, and partner.

I would love for my potential followers to know that there will be bumps in the road but follow your intuition. I had a lot of people, even professors, tell me not to leave my first college. I also had a lot of professors shoot down my ideas and style. It’s not been easy. We can’t always see the path it took someone to get to where they are, but I can guarantee you that no one has a straight shot to what they want. I wouldn’t be doing what I am today if I would have gotten a job in the animation industry. I might have really loved it, but a part of me knows that I am meant to be where I am now. I was meant to fail and get back up again.

I also would just love to let people know that if you don’t have the support in your life that you need, you can find it! You don’t have to rely on people that just happen to be in your life. The creative community is wonderful. I just recently started really getting to know my peers and it’s been the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my career so far. Go find your people!

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I recently started getting more into manufacturing products this last year. I’m not new to selling products, but I’m 100% new to getting someone to make them for me. I’ve had multiple smaller businesses starting in elementary school selling hand-made things like toys or jewelry to my friends.

Now that my shop is growing, I’ve needed to start making products to diversify what I offer to my customers. I also wanted to start manufacturing because I have SO many product ideas that I can’t feasibly make myself in my attic.

If you are starting to get into manufacturing, you might know that other artists don’t like sharing their suppliers with people. This made it really hard for me to get started because there are thousands of options, most of which are not good. I’m also super picky and want really high-quality at a price I can afford.

The first step I took was listing out all of the things I want to make like enamel pins, coloring books, art prints, stickers, etc. Then I started looking into companies whose mission I liked since that’s very important to me, as well as who had good reviews. Once I had that list, I ordered sample packs if they offered them. I’ve yet to run into a company that doesn’t offer some sort of samples. At one point, I was getting a new sample set in my mailbox every day for two weeks. I now have what I call my “sample box.” It’s filled with all kinds of things from various brands.

This allows me to feel the paper, try the stickers, look at the quality, and everything else I want before placing an order. If it’s a more specialty item, I will pay for samples. For example, I made earrings recently. I did two rounds of samples with the manufacturer to make sure I was happy before placing my larger order.

Overall, it’s just a big experiment of finding the quality you like within your budget! It also helps if you can find artists who share who they use online or are willing to talk to you about it. As I mentioned, some artists like to keep that to themselves, so don’t pry. I try to share about who I used often and am working on classes all about manufacturing!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The best thing that’s helped me build a reputation is showing up consistently online and in person. I’m from a smaller town, so the word can travel fast about new businesses. I’m just now getting more into markets in my area, but I’ve already gained so many new customers and vendor friends that have been invaluable to helping me grow.

As far as online, I try to maintain a very uniform presence across all of my platforms. I do this with color, icons, and language. I have a little cheat sheet I use with all of my colors, fonts, graphics, and language used to refer to if I need to. That being said, I always make sure I’m coming off genuine and sincere first and foremost!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.taylorcarrollart.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/taylorcarroll.art
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/taylornicolecarroll
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8xTSwLrI-129F-tzjU3SiA
• Other: www.skillshare.com/user/taylorcarrollart www.taylorcarrollart.com/stray-shop www.instagram.com/strayshop.official

Image Credits
https://www.krosephoto.com/

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