“How can I boost my income streams while saving time and effort?” – Jasmine Kroeze E51

Jessica Craddock: Welcome back to Intuitive Art Sales. I am here with Jasmine Kroeze. She creates bold, playful, organic art that's heavily influenced by her background in textiles. If you are watching on YouTube, you can see behind her. She has a one and a four year old and has really tight boundaries around her family time. So she's only working about three days a week, but she wants to diversify her income streams to  future proof and make her business more sustainable.

How's it going?

Jasmine Kroeze: Hi! Good! Thanks for having me.

Jessica Craddock: I'm so glad you're here.. So Jasmine, we have not talked at all about what we are going to talk about today, which makes it more fun. So is there anywhere where you would like to start or would you just like to tell me A little bit more. Like you said, working about three days a week, going to diversify my income. Can we just go down that road for a little bit, actually, and see what comes of it. Ready to go.

Jasmine Kroeze: Okay. Great. So, I work for myself, work from home and I just adore like my time for me, I'm an introvert, so with a busy family life I've been quite intentional about creating like my home studio practice as kind of like a little retreat where I can build energy.

I'm actually like more fulfilled and more energized and more excited for my family life. So my background is in fashion and textiles. When I was working in fashion and textiles, like just giving everything out in a busy like office environment a lot of the time. I would just come home, and I just had nothing left. I left my, like previous job unexpectedly my contract finished, and I thought I was going to renew it. But I decided not to, and then a week later found out I was pregnant with Ivy, my four year old now.

Jessica Craddock: That's kind of how mine went except I quit. And then a month later I was pregnant, and we'd been trying for a little bit. 

Jasmine Kroeze: So yeah, I, I said to my husband, like, what am I going to do? So I actually went freelance surface pattern design. So like textile design or and like a little bit of like graphic design branding just to kind of like get the money coming in.

And that was, yeah, that was kind of the beginning of it. And when I was maybe 20 weeks pregnant with Ivy, I answered a call out to paint a mural. Never painted a mural before, but I was like, this is going to be fun. So kind of my headspace was like, I'm used to working in like a meter and a half or like, what is it in yards?

Like a fabric width, right? Like maybe one and a half yards or whatever, maybe a little less. And then I was like, okay, I can think like five meters across, like for a mural, like this is not too far to go. So I started painting this mural and I'm like, oh my gosh, I love this.

This is so much fun. Loving painting. My husband bought me like a massive piece of plywood cause I kept saying like, oh, I just want to paint something, you know. And so he bought me this big piece of plywood, I bought some house paints and just threw some paint around, made some like, really hideous, terrible abstract art that is like, super embarrassing.

But that kind of sparked, like, that was the beginning of my painting journey. I love this hands on, it's just taking my textile practice kind of, like, one step further.

Jessica Craddock: Right.

Jasmine Kroeze: And for, like, a long time I struggled with what's my style, what's my point of view and then I just realized, like, it was just within me it was already there. I didn't have to like kind of push and like, ah, exploring all these different people and styles and studying other artists and things like that.

I'm like, it's already there. Just keep doing what you're doing and just paint. What you are already creating.

Jessica Craddock: It's like therapy. You're just pulling it out.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Yeah. That was my big aha moment of like, okay, like this is my point of view. This is my, my style. I mean, it's evolved so much, so

Jessica Craddock: Of course, because you have.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah, exactly. But yeah, that's kind of like how it all evolved and started. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: So now you are selling originals and you are selling prints. And you told me earlier that I believe, I don't know if it's exclusively or just the majority of your original sell through galleries. And then your prints, you're kind of.

 Let's call it drop shipping for just to simplify.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Is that accurate or do you sell originals on your own as well?

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Originals are about half on my website and half through galleries. Yeah, the, the market has changed a lot in New Zealand. So I was on maternity leave last year.

And I really felt like things obviously slowed down for me and the market also changed a lot in that year that I was off work. And so that was my, like, oh, wow, I really need to change some things up because like, if I'm heavily relying on my originals to sell, that's a lot of pressure. And a lot of pressure creatively to like, be churning out work, you know, production style, and that's not where I want my art to come from.

Like, that's, that's not the right energy that I want to be putting into my pieces. So that was my reaction of like, okay, this needs to be more sustainable. So I already had a couple of different revenue streams going on in my business with my textile design background. There's that surface pattern aspect, which is really helpful to like, a lot of people refer to it as art licensing.

Being able to license my artwork for, for other businesses products. That's a really nice way to I guess hit the same art. You know, have a different outcome for it and also be paid for it again. And so sustainability wise, it's a really nice way to kind of diversify that income.

Jessica Craddock: So that's your third income stream.

Jasmine Kroeze: So that's number three. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Do you have any more?

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. Keep going.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Yeah. So murals, I kind of classify that as like another income stream. It's sort of, yeah, it's quite different. I'm just starting to get a little leverage off my social media. So like partnership deals and things like that.

 I'm actually interested in starting YouTube. I've seen, I'm following you a little journey on on YouTube.

Jessica Craddock: So I don't use it very intentionally at the moment. I should do it better, but the fact that I'm posting anything there means that you're following me there.

Jasmine Kroeze: Absolutely right. And I think that's actually how I found you.

Jessica Craddock: Oh, really?

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Interesting. Yeah. Okay. So we've got murals, originals, prints, art licensing, partnerships on IG, possibly wanting to start YouTube. Did I forget anything?

Jasmine Kroeze: Galleries, I guess.

Jessica Craddock: Galleries. Let's, let's add galleries. So of all of those.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes.

Jessica Craddock: Is there any more? [00:08:00] Oh, there's more. Okay. Keep going. I love it.

Jasmine Kroeze: One more. So this was my big thing of like, okay, what else am I going to introduce? And so this year a little controversial I started using AI to help me create imagery to make mock ups for my work.

Jessica Craddock: It's not the first time I've heard that.

Jasmine Kroeze: I was buying AI imagery anyway to mock my work up for my website. So I'm like, my husband was playing around with it. And I was like, what are you up to? And so he kind of like showed me what I was, what he was doing. I'm like, Oh, this is amazing. Like I can make these beautiful interior scenes for my work and nobody else will have them.

They can be like, you know, I can pull out the tones that I want, and the work that I've created. So I started making these and started posting them on my Instagram. And I was getting a few messages of being like, where the heck are you getting these mockups from? And I'm like, oh, I've been making them.

And they're like, well, can I have them? Can I buy them? I'm like, you can, you can buy them.

Jessica Craddock: Sure.

Jasmine Kroeze: Like, sure. So I did a little research of like what platform was best to like sell them on. I bought a lot off Creative Market before, but yeah, I've tried on Creative Market, but the, like the profit that you earn is so minimal.

So I looked at a couple of different avenues and ended up with Etsy. Literally, I've never been on Etsy before this, and never bought anything off there. It's just not really a thing in New Zealand.

Jessica Craddock: Interesting.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Yeah. I think everyone still has the Etsy as handmade crafty stuff that you would buy at a market, whereas there's so many different things on Etsy now.

 So I created a mock up shop and started listing everything, and I've got quite like a strategic mind. And so I was like, YouTube university, let's find out how to do everything properly.

And then they just started going  crazy and selling and selling. And I'm like, this is insane. Like I do the work once. They're all beautifully done and photoshop. They're all smart objects, so it's super easy. Download the file, you know, put your work in there, and it's done. But I do the work once, list it and you know, it's passive income essentially for me.

Jessica Craddock: Oh, yeah, for sure.

Can I tell you an idea I just had for my husband because he is working on his Etsy getting his Etsy shop back up running.

Jasmine Kroeze: Oh, cool. Yeah. What's his Etsy shop?

Jessica Craddock: He makes steel logs, like kind of sculpture out of steel that look like logs that go on top of gas fire pits.

Jasmine Kroeze: Cool.

Jessica Craddock: So, yeah. But his Etsy was doing really well and then just kind of tanked over the years. He wasn't paying any attention to it, but now he's getting back to it. Anyway short form videos are something that every platform is kind of going towards. And so I just had the idea. I wonder if you can do video listings on Etsy, and you can.

So if you're ever creating reels or anything for your mockups, go ahead and put them onto the Etsy platform as well. And I feel like that's going to boost your listing.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes.

Jessica Craddock: I don't know that for a fact, but I can almost guarantee it. 

Jasmine Kroeze: Cool. Thank you.

Jessica Craddock: You're welcome. So of all of these galleries, murals, originals, prints, art licensing, partnerships on Instagram, possibly YouTube and Etsy with your mock ups. Twofold? Which one do you feel like is the most successful currently?

Jasmine Kroeze: Currently? Hands down, the interior mock ups.

Jessica Craddock: Okay.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah, it's unreal.

Jessica Craddock: And which one are you most excited about is question number two.

Jasmine Kroeze: I always have like a big love for murals. Murals was kind of how I started the aha moment for me. But it's also the community aspect of without murals, I wouldn't have that connection to my community.

 People love. The murals, like it's just, I don't know what it is about them, but it's like to have that art in a public space is so cool. And also to be able to do something for the community is really nice. So it's kind of like my little way of like giving. Is it giving back if you get paid for a mural?

Jessica Craddock: Yes. Do you feel like the art in your home gives back to you even though you paid for it?

Jasmine Kroeze: Totally. Without a doubt.

Jessica Craddock: We're going with yes. Okay, so we've got two ways that we could go. And we could go down any of these roads. But you know, I like to go with either what's already working and how can we make it work better, or what are we most excited about?

Pick one of those. We'll go down that path.

Jasmine Kroeze: Right. You choose.

Jessica Craddock: I choose. [00:13:00]

Jessica Craddock: Well, can I ask you, you don't have to share numbers with me. But when we look at time spent versus return, are the murals more profitable because they are larger one project? Or is it the mock ups because it's the multiple small income streams that just come?

Jasmine Kroeze: Hands down it's the mock ups and because it's, you do the work once and you upload it and it's the long game, right? So, every day I might get a sale and then that builds up over time.

Jessica Craddock: I will make sure to link your Etsy shop, because I have a feeling that anyone listening is going to go, Ooh, I need to check that out. Okay, so right now, it's on Etsy. How many do you have?

Jasmine Kroeze: Like a hundred?

Jessica Craddock: Okay, great. A hundred. Yeah. And I assume you're just creating more all the time, like just adding them as you have the time to do it.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. And just like in reaction of what's selling, like I'll create more and honestly, actually I kind of stumbled across like a wallpaper mockup.

So like with my. So this pattern background, a lot of people are like hunting for wallpaper mock ups and there's not that many out there. So I taught myself how to do that. And those have been like selling a lot. Yeah. That's really cool.

Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: I kind of really love that. I am in this artist group with one of my clients Emily, It's called The Harvest Community, and we were just talking about how people were looking for mock ups. Where our subject of the week was photography, and this one person was like, I buy this sample wallpaper, and stick it up on the wall every time I want to do it. And I'm like, that sounds like a whole lot of work. So that's genius. Okay.

[00:14:22] Turn what sells well into recurring revenue through a membership.

Jessica Craddock: So let's talk about one, how do we get it into more hands? And two, how do we package it up to hopefully create more sales? From the sales you're already making. Does that sound good?

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Are you talking about mock ups now?

Jessica Craddock: Yes, we're talking mock ups because that's, that's the road we have driven, driven.

Jasmine Kroeze: That's where we're driving. Okay. Road trip. I like it.

Jessica Craddock: Because I mean, if we try to talk about everything, it's just very umbrella y and it, I don't feel like it works as well. So I'd rather help you hone in on one specific thing at a time.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So my first thought was either upsell, which I'm not sure they make it very easy to do on Etsy. Have you ever encountered anything on Etsy where it says upsell? I don't think you can.

Jasmine Kroeze: So in the, like the shop announcement thingy, like you can put like a discount code, like a bundle. So buy three, get a, like, I don't know, 20 percent off or whatever. Yeah. So like a bundle discount, like that's generally, and you can like sneak it into the like product listing. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: So that's one way we could go another way. My mind went straight to a membership where what does one mock up cost?

Jasmine Kroeze: Like anywhere between 10 and 20 New Zealand dollars.

Jessica Craddock: Okay.

Jasmine Kroeze: So like U. S. is, I don't know, maybe like 8.

Jessica Craddock: I'm thinking somewhere in like the 50 New Zealand dollars range, about the same price as buying three. So whatever that would average out to be, if you're going to buy three, you could just choose to join my membership instead where you pay that amount every month and you have access to all of mine.

Jasmine Kroeze: Oh, good. Yeah, nice.

Jessica Craddock: So then you get that reoccurring because, you know, one mock up is good, but 100 mock ups is way better. Yeah. There would probably have to be either like a. And tell me if I'm losing you here, either some sort of drip release where you get so many every month so that they're not just paying one membership fee and going in and downloading all of them and then canceling. Or let's see, how could that work?

You know what it could be is. For the price of three, I will send you 10 every month or something along those lines.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Nice.

Jessica Craddock: The problem is, I'm thinking through this as we're going. The problem is that you would probably have to sell the membership through Etsy in order for them to allow promoting it. And I don't know that they can play with recurring billing. So it might be that you would have to message everyone who buys and say, Hey, I also have this option if you'd like to apply your balance kind of deal, which is a lot of admin work.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. It's the recurring revenue that you're getting at, right? Like that's the key.

Jessica Craddock: Exactly. The recurring revenue, but also if you get a customer once, how do we get them again and again and again without them having to remember to come back to your Etsy shop?

Jasmine Kroeze: Gotcha. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: That's the one thing that I don't love about Etsy is you're kind of separated from the customer. The great thing about Etsy is they find the customers for you.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes, totally. And everyone's generally on Etsy to buy, like they're hunting for,

Jessica Craddock: Yes, they're looking for something specific. So another option, which goes back to how are we promoing this is we create something outside of Etsy.

We keep Etsy running because it's working. No need to break anything that's working, but something like creating its own Instagram account. Creating its own YouTube account because you said you wanted to play with YouTube, something along those lines that's very search engine. Probably not Instagram, actually, because I'm thinking search engine because you've obviously got the key to that down.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. YouTube.

Jessica Craddock: So YouTube. Another possible one could be Pinterest. I like Pinterest because it's keeps working like YouTube.

Jasmine Kroeze: For sure. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: But then those pins or those videos would go to a membership site on your website.

Jasmine Kroeze: And, and bringing people back to my website.

Jessica Craddock: To you.

Right. Yeah, exactly. So what I, for my clients, what I recommend is if they're on Etsy, great, like do Etsy, but make it a separate thing. Don't send people to Etsy, send people to you.

Just out of curiosity, where's this landing? Like, what do you think about the membership idea in some way, shape or form? Is that even appealing to you? Or are you like, that sounds too tacky and I don't even want to go there.

Jasmine Kroeze: It's a little tricky. It's interesting. The thing that stresses me out is I guess having to make sure that I'm making like ongoing making enough to like be spitting new work out at people. And I love the automation, like I love the, the hands off. So like if it's, you know, if I can automate everything, awesome. I'm, I'm all about it.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah, it would take some building, but I think there's a lot of automating that could happen for sure.

Jasmine Kroeze: I like it. I like the, I like the concept.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So we'll keep going. Keep driving. We don't need to do a U turn.

Okay. So do you want to talk about the automation of it or do you want to talk about what it would look like? Or do you want to talk about a YouTube or a Pinterest strategy? Like what would be the most useful?

[00:20:23] Utilize YouTube to market your products to a larger audience.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. YouTube. Let's go YouTube.

Jessica Craddock: YouTube. Okay.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. It's, it's like already there.

Jessica Craddock: Do you make videos about the mock ups at all yet?

Are you interested in doing so? I mean, you said YouTube.

Jasmine Kroeze: So how, how to use them?

Jessica Craddock: It could be a lot of things. It could be how to use them. That would be like a very basic, I don't know, five, 10 video series.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: That you could, you can actually create series on YouTube, so that would be like your start here.

But also I'm thinking more shorts, like demonstrations of you or other artists using them. Maybe you could do cross promotions with other artists, like, Hey, I'll give you three free mock ups if you will videotape yourself putting your art in it and send me the final product

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: One, two, three, four things, something like that.

What other kind of content would be good?

I really think this is one of those instances where you don't need a ton of different types of content. It's more like the same over and over and over, which sounds really boring. But if somebody wants to see how to do it or see what their art could look like inside of that. Plus you could repurpose those videos on your Etsy.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah, exactly. I also love the, like, I love a good recipe, right? That's if I can be more efficient and I know that there's a recipe that works.

Jessica Craddock: Well, this is where actually doing it comes into play because we would have to create, I don't know, 30 artists collaborations or 30 mock ups of you putting your artwork into, I don't know if we call it in situ, but something like that to see like, are they going to perform?

And I think the main thing about YouTube is one, are they interesting, but also are you using keywords? That's really the big thing because, you know, when people are going on YouTube, more often than not, like Etsy, they are searching for something.

 It could even be, although I don't know that you want to give away your process, it could be like process videos of you creating them, but not like a how to, but just you doing it. I follow one graphic designer and I apologize to you. I don't remember your name. But she videotapes her computer screen and imagines some celebrity that she would like to create branding for and then creates like a whole website. And it shows her moving all the elements around. And it's just so fun to watch.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: It's sped up. So it's not like, and then I use this tool and then I go, right, exactly. It's just more like, here's me creating it, which people love process videos.

So we've got process videos, a how to series. And we've got mock up use.

The thing about short form videos that I love is that you can repurpose them on so many places.

Jasmine Kroeze: And this is what I've kind of realized. I was putting so much energy into my Instagram that I realized, like, just flip the camera and start creating stuff for YouTube. And then, you know, just change the ratio and have a for short form. I can still be putting the same amount of energy that I wasn't into Instagram, but I'm like kind of taking it one step up.

 I can repurpose. You know, that could be a blog post as well.

Jessica Craddock: Exactly. So then you can take those how to series and create a series of blog posts that are also keyworded with your headings. Where I see the problem going. All this is a lot of work that takes you away from painting.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes.

Jessica Craddock: But also, it has proven itself to be a very viable income stream.

Jasmine Kroeze: Which frees me up.

Jessica Craddock: Which frees you up, sort of.

Jasmine Kroeze: Kind of like it's the emotional side? Like if I know that I've got income coming in, then it frees me up. There's not this stress and the pressure of creating which frees me up to create more? Does that make sense?

Jessica Craddock: Yes. Are you open to the idea of bringing someone on to kind of semi run this, like you tell them what to do, but then like you create a process for you to do this and you do this, you do this, here's a video go.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes. How?

Jessica Craddock: How?

[00:25:24] Hiring help can free up more time to create.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes. I'm like, I'm getting to the point in my business where I'm like, I have so much going on, and I can see how beneficial it would be to. Start delegating some of this work and having somebody that, you know, I can work closely with, but I'm like, I don't particularly like managing people.

It's just a lack of skills, to be honest.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So first of all, don't hire anyone.

Jasmine Kroeze: Gotcha.

Jessica Craddock: Hire someone who is a trained virtual assistant. I have hired two people from the same, like a training university for virtual assistants. One's been with me for a year and a half. One's been with me for three or four years.

Jasmine Kroeze: Wow.

Jessica Craddock: They're amazing. I have no complaints. I tell them what to do, but I tell them once and then they do it over and over and over.

Jasmine Kroeze: Amazing. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Hallelujah.

Jasmine Kroeze: What kind of stuff do you get them to do? Obviously like emailing me and scheduling podcasts and such.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. So one of them, Julie is my podcast manager. She does the whole podcast.

Jasmine Kroeze: Wow.

Jessica Craddock: I did train her somewhat on podcasting with my limited knowledge of podcasting. And she has also taken it upon herself to train herself in it because it's where she wants to specialize. And so like, it's kind of a joint. I'll say, okay, I would like you to send me these statistics every month. And she will say, Oh, well, what about this kind of show notes? Should we edit it to be like this?

And so we kind of work on it together.

Jasmine Kroeze: Cool.

Jessica Craddock: You know what? Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put the link in the show notes, and I'm going to have Julie send it to you as well, because she knows where it is. I bet.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. And she's listening.

Jessica Craddock: She's listening.

Jasmine Kroeze: Thanks, Julie.

Jessica Craddock: Thanks, Julie. Okay. So the other one, Becky, does most of my client care. So like, she basically makes sure my program is running. So she will upload all of the videos of the client calls and email them out. She does little things like I'm actually training her right now on distributing my short form videos everywhere.

So I make it once and then she puts it in all the places, just all the stuff that would keep me in the muck. And that honestly my brain could not realistically execute. I'm ADHD, I could do a project, but if I have to do all of these steps for the other projects, it's not happening.

Jasmine Kroeze: My husband has ADHD. I understand you.

Jessica Craddock: Thank you. I feel seen.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. I get you.

Jessica Craddock: Yes. Okay. So first of all, hire someone who has some idea what they're doing. Second of all, I recommend above all creating something called standard operating procedures.

Jasmine Kroeze: Nice. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Do you know what that means?

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Like a step by step how you do everything, right?

Jessica Craddock: Exactly. So we have one big Google doc that says once a month, do this. Here's the steps to do it. Here's the login. Here's how you upload a photo here, like just break it down so if I ever lose one of them, God forbid, I will be able to somehow train someone else because I have all the steps and all the things that they have to do.

Jasmine Kroeze: Perfect.

Jessica Craddock: So in my mind, this person is, you're creating the content. Maybe they could help you with that. Maybe not. I don't know. It depends on the person, but in my mind, you're creating the content, and they are distributing it to YouTube. They're looking, maybe you're giving them some guidance, at least at first on finding the right keywords.

And then they're going out and doing the work and putting them in there. They are then taking the videos and putting them onto Etsy. They're going to help you get your membership site up and running. So once you've created 10 mock ups, then they know on the first of every month, they're going to email everyone and say, here's the 10 of the month and any

customer service things that come in. They're going to be monitoring your email and basically they're going to run that side. They're going to pay for themselves.

Jasmine Kroeze: Cool. Amazing.

Jessica Craddock: I'm backing up just a second because I'm looking at my notes and I thought something earlier and it didn't come out. This how to series, I see them as your long videos, the horizontal ones, and the rest of them are your short form. Maybe that works, maybe that doesn't, but that was what popped in my head.

Jasmine Kroeze: I like it.

[00:30:19] When your income is consistent, it changes your mindset.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So recap back to me, your takeaways so far.

Jasmine Kroeze: Good. Gosh, there's so much in there. So

Jessica Craddock: Maybe too much. Sorry.

Jasmine Kroeze: No, no, no, no, no. Don't never apologize. There's so much, there's so much value in there. I'm just like, Oh, do you hear that?

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. What was that?

Jasmine Kroeze: That was someone buying one of my mock ups.

Jessica Craddock: That's so exciting.

Jasmine Kroeze: It never gets old. Like ever. Also mindset of like, when I'm selling originals, right, they're like, the sale of an original is less often.

Jessica Craddock: Mm-hmm.

Jasmine Kroeze: Whereas what I've noticed with the mockups is I'm selling like, I don't know, anywhere between zero and 12 a day and just the, the mind shift of like, I've got money coming in at me all the time. I'm like dopamine boost all the time.

Jessica Craddock: Oh yeah. I bet that's nice.

Jasmine Kroeze: I've got money coming in at me and like, it's totally changed my like mindset around like, I don't have enough or I need to be making money or whatever. It's, it's just been really like such a surprising thing of like Yeah,

Jessica Craddock: It's very abundant.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes. Yeah, a hundred percent.

Jessica Craddock: I love that for you.

Jasmine Kroeze: I love it. Anyway, where were we at?

Jessica Craddock: I don't know. Where were we? Takeaways. Yes. I said I gave you too much, and then we went down the rabbit hole.

Jasmine Kroeze: No, no, not too much. Definitely not too much. I love the, the potential strategy around YouTube and the content types. That's so, such practical advice and really helpful. I do wonder if I can hook it in with my art as well, because my promote that I'm an art and artists, and maybe that could be like a one Avenue or like a, I guess a content pillar or something as the mock ups as part of that, especially if I can be driving it to my website or is it too, like,

Jessica Craddock: You know what I think I would do. I don't normally tell people to separate things. I don't really love them separated, but this feels like such a different thing. But. I may tell you something different tomorrow, but I think I would separate them. And in a lot of the videos that you use, use your art as examples and link that in the description.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yep. Cool. Mm-hmm.

Jessica Craddock: So then would that create a whole other YouTube strategy? Oh, I hate that.

Jasmine Kroeze: Possibly, yes. That's what I'm like, ummm...

Jessica Craddock: Here's what I would do.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Start with this. Because we wanna get one thing running.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes. But it's also quite different, right? Like,

Jessica Craddock: It is.

Jasmine Kroeze: I see so many artists, like art YouTubers, whereas mock ups are so different.

Jessica Craddock: I know that a lot of artists are going to be looking for it. And I do believe that artists are also art buyers.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yes. 100%.

Jessica Craddock: Actually, I believe that with all my heart because every artist I know, maybe minus one Oh, yeah, I bought this person's art and that person's art.

Normally, it's like the lower stuff, but they are supporters of the arts.

Jasmine Kroeze: Totally.

Jessica Craddock: So what I would say would be start with it as a mock up channel. And once you feel like I've got my feet, feet under me, maybe then I want to experiment with adding my art into the channel.

And at that point you can decide, do I want to try to add it here? Or do I want to decide I want to try something else for art and YouTube, or do I just want to just make YouTube, just my mock up central.

Jasmine Kroeze: Right.

Jessica Craddock: That's a further down the line problem, I think. Yeah.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Gotcha. I like it.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So you said YouTube, you said the types of videos.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Like, kind of collaborating with other artists and helping, like getting them to help generate content, but also giving them value by giving them, gifting them some mock ups is amazing.  Like process videos, like all the actual content and focus on those keywords, just like I am with Etsy. But you know, bring that over into YouTube language. 

Jessica Craddock: It's probably not all that different. If it's working on Etsy, it's probably gonna work on YouTube.

Jasmine Kroeze: Oh, okay. And just start with the long form, chop it down and then repurpose. But also you're kind of blowing my mind with like the whole VA thing. Getting a VA, getting your standard operating procedures and like set that up for the long term. Yeah, that's awesome. That's really great.

Jessica Craddock: And I will also say they're a little bit more expensive when you hire someone who's trained, but maybe not because they work faster. They work more efficient. You're not like always having to be on their back. Yeah.

And then, so the first thing is promoing them and starting that YouTube channel, but I would really like to see you explore that membership idea.

Cause if three people out of the 12, and I feel like that might be a, eventually realistic conversion rate, then go over and say, instead of giving you 50 here, I'm going to give you 50 every month for a while. I mean, then you just triple. No, not even triple. I don't even know what you did. You made a lot more money.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. And it's the consistency that's really beautiful.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. And I wouldn't expect probably them to stick around really long term, but even if it's two or three or four months, that's four times that sale already.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah, I like it. I'm interested. I think like the blocks for me are like what platform, like how to actually, like, you know,

[00:36:40] Start simple and don't overcomplicate your plan.

Jessica Craddock: Make it as simple as possible. VA can help you with researching that, but also, don't start off by making it really complicated. Start off by saying, as soon as you join, I send you 10 mock ups and then on the first of next month, you get 10 more. So all you need is their payment information and email address.

Jasmine Kroeze: Cool, yeah.

Jessica Craddock: And you can send them a Dropbox folder or something.

Jasmine Kroeze: Perfect. Easy. Cool.

Jessica Craddock: Eventually, you can make a website and it can have download buttons and it can have this and it can have that, but we don't need to go there yet. Always start with the smallest version of what you wanna make and get it going, and then make it bigger. And then make it bigger.

Jasmine Kroeze: Beautiful.

Jessica Craddock: Same thing with the VA like you can probably hire them for, hmm, I don't know, maybe 15 hours a month to start and grow it from there. Yeah. 

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. That's really achievable.

Jessica Craddock: I don't wanna talk about anything else because. I feel like I already made my own brain hurt. So, but do you need any clarification on anything? Is there anywhere that I can help you understand better?

Jasmine Kroeze: I think you've been amazing. You've been so practical with your suggestions and your advice, and I just really love the way that your brain works and that you want to give ideas and you want to help. You just really, you're like a little cheerleader, you know?

Jessica Craddock: Aww, thank you.

Jasmine Kroeze: So yeah, I'm excited to explore some ideas and make my art business more profitable, more sustainable and, and also freeing up my time. I think that's a really big key and getting some help, because I definitely think that that's holding me back. You know, and getting a VA to get on my side. 

Jessica Craddock: So if I were to make a suggestion, I would say get the simplest version of that working and then go promote your murals.

Jasmine Kroeze: That's cool. I like it.

Jessica Craddock: Well, Jasmine, it was a pleasure.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. You too. Thank you so much. This is honestly just packed full of value and, and it was really fun not knowing where this was going to end up.

Jessica Craddock: That's my favorite part. 

Jasmine Kroeze: Cool.

Jessica Craddock: Tell all your friends to come be my podcast guests so I don't have to find them.

Jasmine Kroeze: Oh really? Okay. I have a lot of people. They're always asking me like, how do you get on a podcast?

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. So I'll put a link to that too. But seriously, for anybody listening, you're like, Oh, I don't know, should I do it? Just do it.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Help me out. I want to help you out. Help me out.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Yeah. So good. Oh, so much value. You are meeting me where I'm at, which is really cool. Like, yeah, it's really nice.

Jessica Craddock: Thank you for saying that. What I got on here. I'm like, I'm in my winter phase. So I'm like kind of tired and like, Oh, is this even going to be good? So I appreciate all of the encouragement.

Where would people find you?

Jasmine Kroeze: Find me. So, on Instagram, Jasmine. Kroeze yeah, and my interior mock ups on Etsy, but now after talking to you, I'm going to put them all on my website too, so I can drive people there.

Jessica Craddock: No, you're not. You're VA is.

Jasmine Kroeze: Oh, my VA is. Perfect. I love it. Perfect.

So yes, I'm on Etsy at Interior Mockup Co. 

Jessica Craddock: All right. Well, I'm going to go pick up my children from school. So thank you again.

Jasmine Kroeze: Thank you.

Jessica Craddock: We'll talk soon, I hope.

Jasmine Kroeze: Yeah. Let's keep in touch. I'd love that.

Jessica Craddock: Yes. Please.

Bye Jasmine.

Jasmine Kroeze: Bye lovely. See you.