Moving Forward is also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Angela Ferrari is a children’s book author, storyteller, and host of the Story Spectacular podcast. Today, Angela will share how she has taken her love of storytelling to create a business.
Successes at a glance:
Children’s book author and illustrator:
Host and creator of the Story Spectacular Podcast.
Angela’s story:
Not surprisingly, Angela’s background is in studio art. Her education followed her love of creativity and imagination. However, what you might not know is that Angela also has a business background. She learned finance and entrepreneurship. For Angela, college was a time to learn the craft of making art. Following graduation, Angela realized that she was lacking a big piece: advancing her art thru business and entrepreneurship. While many of us relegate our creativity to “the side” as hobbies or weekend adventures, Angela wanted to put this front and center. As part of her education, she enrolled in an “Artists for Assets” program at her school and started out selling landscape paintings, which she later expanded to storytelling. Make no mistake. Angela shares that making art and story her vocation is a lot of work, a lot of hustle, a lot of working with mentors, and most all, never losing sight of her big why. She is proof positive that you don’t have to let go of the creativity and imagination that fuels us as kids and that you can make it the focal point of your career as an entrepreneur.
Angela’s big why:
Angela’s big why has to do with never growing out of that “pretend stage” that we all enjoyed as kids. Angela is driven in her career and life choices by her imagination and curiosity. These qualities inspire Angela to learn as much as she can about the world and hone those lessons into telling and sharing stories. Angela’s love of story comes in the form of illustrating and writing books and hosting a fiction series, The Story Spectacular Podcast.
Biggest challenge today:
Angela’s biggest challenge is also her biggest opportunity: reaching an audience. Through her creative endeavors, Angela is casting as wide a net as possible. As a solopreneur, this isn’t always easy. Think about what it takes to create an entire fiction podcast series: the story, the voices, sound fx, and music. Doing all of that as a one-person operation is a lot of work. As such, Angela has to hold herself accountable to get things done.
Moving forward past that challenge:
A big endeavor for 2018 is doing live events. As a storyteller who reaches a primarily kid-based audience, Angela has started leveraging live appearances in classrooms and other venues where she can expand her brand presence, make great in-person connections, and be the face to the business.
Knowledge bursts:
One important tip for anyone who wants to start a fiction or story-based podcast:
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert: the book inspired Angela to tap into her creative side, while providing a grounded, pragmatic look at creating content as a business.
Favorite app, website, or productivity practice for moving forward:
Simple Habit: a great meditation app for calming and centering yourself before a big event (e.g. recording a podcast or an interview).
How Angela is moving forward today:
Create, create, create!
Angela’s workflow starts with consuming content to get her creative juices flowing.
Next, Angela does an idea burst on her computer to develop into story ideas.
Next, Angela puts the ideas “on a shelf” for a while and lets them marinate.
After 1-2 weeks, she edits them with a fresh mind which allows her to see which ideas can take the next step into full stories.
Support the Podcast:
The Corporate Cliches Adult Coloring Book: makes the perfect stocking stuffer or white elephant gift.
Try out Audible (affiliate link).
Try out Amazon Prime (affiliate link).
Who is Angela in five years?:
Angela will continue on this journey: story is her lifelong pursuit. She will be finding new ways to tell, create, and share those stories; reaching and growing her audience.
Parting wisdom:
“Whatever idea that you have inside you, you have to find a way to release into the world. Give yourself permission and just go for it!”
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