Kara Fidd: How This Graphic Design Blogger Makes Thousands Selling Templates

Welcome to the Scaling Success Stories series!

If you’re new to this series, I ask online entrepreneurs questions regarding growing and scaling their business.

This is the series description:

“Imagine if you could learn from the experts on how to grow and scale your business. Every Monday, I invite entrepreneurs who have conquered this challenge to share their stories, from realizing they could make money online to building thriving businesses that positively change their customers’ lives. If you want to quit your full-time job and pursue your business wholeheartedly, read on to learn how you can discover your true purpose, find success, and live the life you want to.”

You can get your fill of online business tips by reading the other interviews on the Scaling Success Stories page.

Table of Contents

Interview with Kara Fidd from Simplifying DIY Design

It was my pleasure interviewing Kara Fidd of Simplifying DIY Design, a graphic design blog that teaches bloggers and entrepreneurs simple graphic design tips, strategies, and hacks to succeed. A Certified Canva Creative (yes, that’s a thing!), Kara approaches design from a simplistic perspective so you can understand the principles well.

Check out what Kara had to say to my questions!

1. Why did you start an online business and how does your passion still drive your business’ growth today?

To be quite honest, my first businesses were started out of necessity and the fact that I really wanted to quit my stressful nursing job to be home with my son. My husband was also starting over in a new career and money became tight so I started trying to figure out how to make money from home.

I tried an Etsy store (I hated sewing), and blogging (I hated writing but did love the digital marketing side), and graphic design with a couple of clients (I love designing).

I spent most of my time in blogging groups on Facebook trying to help bloggers figure out how to create graphics and products and decided that it just makes sense to turn my passion of design into a business.

I’ve been able to focus solely on this business now as it provides me more income than I was making working 40+ hours at my nursing job and I get to do what I love while being home with my kids.

My passion to drive my business growth today comes right from my readers—it gets me so excited when they show me things they’ve been able to create with.

Editor’s note: Kara provides amazing support! She’s been the soundboard for the design of my rebrand and so many other pivotal design choices. She’s a whiz at this stuff!

2. At what point did you realize that your business was “taking off” and that you could really make money from it?

The moment I knew it was going to take off was the moment I hit $10,000 on my very first product launch.

I went into the launch dragging myself, kicking, and screaming because I was sure no one would buy. My list was small and I had only had this business for about 6 months.

Prior to the launch, almost all my income was coming from client work which I knew I couldn’t scale with the time I had (I have two toddlers at home with me).

I was making next to nothing on my own aside from a few hundred bucks each month from tripwire sales. I launched my product and generated just under $11,000 in 7 days and I thought…

Ok, NOW I have something!!

I also knew that because it was an evergreen product that sales would drop when the launch was over but once I had my automated funnel up and running, the income was much more consistent without the extra work on relaunching so I just continued working on products since that’s what worked best for my business and the niche I was in.

3. At what point did you realize you were living the life you wanted to?

I think it was the month I bought my family of four an “NYC at Christmas time” vacation.

I hadn’t even done a launch or anything extravagant that month, but I had so much left over and we had paid off so much debt through the year that I wanted to do something special for them.

My husband is always so supportive and helpful when it comes to helping me balance my work and life. I bought my family train tickets and a hotel stay for the 3 nights prior to Christmas Eve so we could all experience the city at Christmas time.

I also “funded” it once we were there, letting us have a wonderful stress-free time!

Living the life we want includes a lot of travel and adventure without stressing about what we can or can’t spend so I knew to be able to do that was just the start of something amazing.

4. One of the biggest fears of outsourcing is trusting the people you hire to run your business the way you would. How did you overcome this and where did you find the right freelancers and employees to help you grow your business?

The very first thing I outsourced was Facebook.

I honestly really dislike Facebook so I think the fact that I hate it and have no desire to do it was helpful when it came to trusting someone else to take it over!

The only thing I really do on Facebook now is helping the people in my group, which is the thing I enjoy anyway. It’s basically like getting to engage 1:1 with my email list.

Honestly, if I didn’t have my social media manager posting for me on Facebook, I just wouldn’t do it.

She also networks in other groups, doing daily threads which I feel is important for MY niche specifically because I’m targeting bloggers and bloggers are in those groups.

I’ve also recently hired an executive assistant.

This was much harder for me and is still hard.

While I know this person very well, I still have a hard time trusting anyone with my email—customer service is extremely important to me and I’m a little controlling when it comes to how fast an email is answered and the quality of an answer.

However, she is currently doing WordPress maintenance, Tailwind scheduling, and has a design background so she is helping me maintain my design templates and also helping me expand them (I create new ones in InDesign and she creates the first draft in Canva and then I just tweak/edit that draft as needed).

I found my social media manager in a Facebook group for military spouse entrepreneurs. This was the first place I was comfortable networking in and she came with great recommendations. My executive assistant is a family member who I can work with in person if needed which is really helpful.

Editor’s note: I love how Kara admits that outsourcing isn’t easy and that it can be a difficult pill to swallow but that it’s necessary for growth. Also, note how her assistant is well-versed in what Kara preaches. That’s the best kind of assistant because it allows trust to be established much more quickly.

5. A common myth is that as you grow and scale your business, you have to sell your soul to make money, especially when you venture into paid advertising. How do you debunk this myth in your business?

You will never sell your soul as long as you work to provide as much value as possible in every single thing you do.

I don’t care if that thing is a sponsored post, a product launch, etc.

If you believe in the product, and you provide no-strings-attached value at every step of the game, you will never have to feel like you’ve sold your soul or that you’re salesy.

I feel that honesty and value goes a long way in marketing and should always be a #1 priority of any entrepreneur.

6. Why do you think most people fail to grow their businesses and what advice would you offer them to keep pushing, despite all the setbacks?

I think there are a few reasons why people fail to grow their businesses.

I think a big one is that they underestimate the time commitment and the difficulty level of growing a business from scratch.

It’s hard and takes a lot of effort, so once they realize that overnight success is not a thing, a lot of people just give up.

Another reason is that they don’t understand the financial commitment.

A lot of people go into online business thinking that it will be free or very cheap and they are unwilling or unable to invest in the tools they need to grow that business. Businesses cost money.

I was very broke when I started my business, which is why I took client work. I put everything I earned right back into my business until I was making a full-time income.

Another reason for a failed business is simply that you don’t have a plan. My first few attempts were total failures because I had no idea what I was doing.

I had no plan on how to scale, I had no monetization strategy, I had no idea what I was doing at all. I had to step back and really LEARN before I could formulate a strategy for success. It was only then that I could implement it in a way that made sense for my business.

I think it’s a common misunderstanding that one person’s “strategy” will not work for every single business or every single niche. They are all different!

I think my best advice is to just keep your head down. Figure out what works and work really hard to do more of it. It is easy to compare ourselves to others and it’s easy to get defeated or frustrated in lack of progress.

But, just like ANY journey—consistency and pushing through all the obstacles are the only thing that’s going to help you see success.

Editor’s note: Have you noticed something among the interviews? Nearly all of them said that running a business is NOT easy. Jeff Proctor said “people were blissfully unaware of how much work goes into blogging” and McKinzie Bean said, “Businesses take time to build.”

7. How important has niching down been (no matter how hard it hurts) to your business’ growth and profitability?

As someone with a tiny niche I can say it’s REALLY important!!

My very first blog was a very broad lifestyle type of blog. It never went anywhere.

When I started Simplifying DIY Design, I started with a niche and very specific niche. I grew my list really quickly because I knew EXACTLY who I was talking to.

I knew my “avatar” very well and I knew HOW to talk to that avatar.

I had a very specific problem/solution that I was providing with this niche and I believe this is exactly the reason that my product launch went so well. I was continuously studying the niche and the people I was attracting.

I was able to hone in on the one thing that my business was looking to solve and then create a product to solve it.

I know it’s hard for new businesses to think of shutting anyone out by niching down into something so specific, but I’m telling you right now that it is KEY to having a profitable business!

Editor’s note: Kara hit the nail on the head for what works with her business model. She’s maximized her revenue based on her ability to accurately solve people’s problems. Let this be a note to you that you don’t need to have a massive niche to be PROFITABLE. Remember, profitability over popularity.

8. What do you attribute your success to and how do you explain it? Do you think the same strategies will help you reach your next monetization goals? Why or why not?

I attribute a couple of things to my success—again, I think that knowing my avatar right from the beginning was a big key factor in the success of my product. I also think that creating an automated funnel was another key for success.

I don’t have the time to launch things all the time (new products or re-launches of open/close carts). Again, I’m doing this with babies on my lap most of the time so automated is the only way I CAN do this.

However, it doesn’t matter how good your product is or how well you’ve set up your automation.

If you are not speaking your avatars language and communicating the problem/solution of your business in a way that hits their pain points, it’s going to be hard to be successful.

I invested a lot of money in copywriting resources over the years and I feel it has been a big part of my success. I do think this is going to help me reach my next monetization goals.

Now that I’ve figured out how to monetize my niche of people, I’m going to create sub-niches with similar funnels and then scale them all with ads—the main thing that will be different is the targeting.

So, I’ll essentially have the exact same system in place but going in several directions to different groups of specifically niched people.

Editor’s note: In case you were curious how Kara learned how to set up automated email funnels and sales sequences, she learned that in Create and Go’s Six-Figure Blogger. That course goes over everything regarding digital product creation and the advanced email marketing strategies to sell them. As you can tell, Kara’s made the most of that course. If that’s something you’re interested in, check it out!

9. To scale, you really need to have a systemized business. What steps have you taken to build those systems and how do you optimize them?

The lack of time that I have to actually work on this business makes it difficult.

A lot of things get put on the backburner when I’m working on big projects like a new product. The best way I can try to manage my time is by doing block scheduling.

I assign different tasks to each day so that I can focus all my work time to a specific task.

I work best when I am not trying to multi-task and do a million things, so if I can focus on just 1 or 2 tasks per day, it usually has a better shot of actually getting done.

Anything I can put on automation I do and if I can assign it to my assistant (like Tailwind scheduling), I have her do that, too. I optimize these systems often by looking for weaknesses.

If I feel like I’m struggling to understand something or see success in a particular area then I know I need to focus more of my time on getting better at that thing, which usually means finding a resource to help me.

10. If you could speak face-to-face with yourself when you first started your business, what pearls of wisdom would you impart?

I would say that this is REALLY HARD!!

DO NOT think that you are doing anything wrong, that there is something wrong with you, or that people don’t like you simply because you didn’t see the same overnight success that others claim to have.

When I first started, I read all the articles on Pinterest and so many of them made all of this look and sound so easy and quick.

While I understand that those kinds of titles get more clicks, I feel like fewer people would give up or get defeated and frustrated if they were fully aware of the commitment of time, energy, and money that goes into starting a business.

I spent a lot of time saying “What am I doing wrong?” or “What is it about me that this isn’t working?”.

You can not compare apples to oranges.

Every business owner has a specific set of skills to the table.

Some may have more time than you, some may have more money to hire things out, some may have more experience.

Don’t compare yourself. Your people will find you and they will love you for exactly who you are—no need to be anyone else!

About Kara Fidd

Kara is a certified graphic designer committed to helping bloggers grow their business through graphic design. She believes you are capable of creating brilliant, jump-off-the-screen graphics to get you and your blog noticed and has dedicated her business to providing you the tools and direction you need to master design. Simplifying DIY Design is here to help you create those graphics that will give your blog more impact and more growth. Connect with Kara on Facebook and Pinterest and get access to Kara free design library for done-for-you Canva templates, exclusive tutorials, and design tools.

Editor’s note: Kara also runs a very popular graphic design Facebook group, which I’m a member of. You can join it here.

Interested in Learning From Kara?

Kara’s flagship course, The Complete Blogger Template Toolkit, comes with oodles of Canva templates ready for you to customize.

Here’s a look inside…

It’s designed for bloggers who need help with design but struggle with the know-how.

I took this course when I first started my blogging journey and it was INSTRUMENTAL in solidifying a foundation in graphic design. I feel so much more confident about it.

The best part is that she walks you throw how to customize each template.

For me, this opened my eyes up to the POWER of Canva.

I still use these templates today! (This saves you the time of creating certain elements that would normally take forever!)

There’s a reason Kara has seen such enormous success with her templates. They work! Plain and simple 🙂

Purchase The Complete Blogger Template Toolkit today!

Conclusion

Thanks for participating in my series, Kara!

As you can tell, it’s NOT EASY growing and scaling an online business, but there are some things you can do to aid you in the process.

Inspired by Kara Fidd?

Now, it’s your turn!

I assembled the Scaling Blueprint to show you how to…

Outsource Effectively
Systemize Your Business
Shatter Your Revenue Goals

After working with six-figure and seven-figure clients, I know the difference between how they function.

Let me help you start scaling successfully.

Get My FREE Blueprint!

Cheers to future success!