Growing Your Business with Stray Curls

Note - This post contains affiliate links, which means I will make a commission at no extra cost to you, should you click through and make a purchase. But I will never endorse a product without having tried it myself and finding it to be helpful and good.

Have you ever seen Stray Curls awesome designs or read some of Angela’s wonderful posts about how you can grow your business? We have a wonderful interview with her today and I am excited to share it with you! I’ve learned a lot from her myself and will discuss some of her products that I highly recommend after her interview. You can find more about Stray Curls on her website and find several of her awesome products and illustrations below!

By Michele of VAMICreations and Angela of Stray Curls

What gave you the idea/inspiration to start Stray Curls?

Stray Curls was created to sell physical merchandise to complement my curly hair comics. Unfortunately, a glitch affected my Instagram account, and I could no longer post comics. 

I had to shift to something else. I already had a lot of experience building online businesses, so I decided to give blogging another try. I found it so much fun that it became the business I own today. 

I started talking about creativity and using your creative skills to build an online business, and I made it fun by adding my own illustrations to the posts. It was an experiment. I honestly never thought that it would take off and become so huge. 

But it did, and I am honored that so many people visit Stray Curls monthly to learn how to make money via their creative skills. 

How did you get started in blogging and drawing?

I’ve been drawing ever since I was three years old. But what pushed me to make this a career was joining Engineering. Once I had my degree in Computer Science, I realised that this was not what I wanted. 

I wanted to work from home and have a dog. I currently have 2. 

I started building websites for small companies and then slowly shifted to building brands for bloggers. That inspired me to get into blogging. I also started gaining more clients this way. 

One day, a woman saw my hand-drawn logo and wanted me to make a few illustrations for her. 

I had so much fun doing that, and I started saving up for a drawing tablet. It was at that point that I started making money - drawing. 

How do you choose the topics you write about?

It is a mix of multiple factors. 

If a blog post does well on Google Search or Pinterest, I consider writing a post related to it. If I get many people asking me questions about a specific topic, I try to cover it in my blog post. 

And I also look at what’s trending. If many people are talking about a particular problem related to my field, I like to discuss it on my blog. 

How do you choose the illustrations you create – i.e. is there something that you take inspiration from when you start an illustration?’

I write my blog post first and then add in the jokes and illustrations wherever required. Mostly, if the passage is too long or too serious, I like to intersperse it with a nice, funny image. 

I do use references for figures and poses. Sometimes, I look at stock photos or photos of people in certain poses to help me capture the pose perfectly. 

What is your favorite style of design or topic to draw or write about?

I currently have only one style of drawing. I have dabbled with multiple mediums like pencil sketches, pen sketches, charcoal drawings and so on. 

But for my blog, my digital illustrations are super colourful, and I like it that way. 

If you see my blog, you’ll notice that I love drawing women. I like to make my blog as human as possible, and I love colours. So, drawing different skin tones and adding other coloured hair is super fun for me. 

What would you tell a new blogger or artist for encouragement?

There are going to be days when you don’t feel like creating. It happens to all of us. But you have to push through it because the only thing that separates a successful creator from an unsuccessful one is consistency. 

What is something you are passionate about and why?

I am passionate about learning. 

I am currently learning to play the piano and learning French. I am not an expert in either by any means, but I do believe that it’s what keeps us going. 

I try to read every single day. Whether it’s learning about life, drawing, spirituality, or business, it’s essential to learn something new every single day. 

If you had one (or several) things to share with a woman entrepreneur, what would it be? What would you encourage them about?

Follow your dreams. 

Do not follow anyone else’s. It will just make you miserable. 

When you build something of your own or do something that truly gives you joy, knows that you are on the right path. 

Have the courage to pursue your own dreams, and know that it’s never too late to start. 

What is a lesson learned for being a woman entrepreneur you wish someone had told you when you first started?

Life is hard. 

Doors aren’t going to open for you. You will have to open them yourself. 

There will be days when you won’t find inspiration or just won’t feel like creating. In that time, listen to the stillness and focus on your inner strength. 

Look within yourself and just watch your emotions, your feelings. Be present. 

Usually, when you are overwhelmed or anxious, your mind is trying to tell you something. Listen. 

Just listen. 

And you will find the answer you are looking for. 

Fun question – if you could meet one person in history or present, who would it be and why?

Probably Buddha. I’d love to talk to him about inner peace and mortality. I know he’d be such an inspiration to people like us who constantly live inside our heads. 

I want to learn how to be more present and live without fear. 

What is your dream for Stray Curls to be (where do you see Stray Curls in 5+ years)?

I do want to start doing talks. I love talking and listening to people. My dream is to hold some sort of event where I can talk to a whole crowd of people and answer their questions live. 

I will try to make that happen soon. 

Note - This post contains affiliate links, which means I will make a commission at no extra cost to you, should you click through and make a purchase. But I will never endorse a product without having tried it myself and finding it to be helpful and good.

One of my favorite products from Stray Curls is her Skyrocketing your Blog Traffic e-book and it’s one I go back to constantly :). In fact, I'm due for another read through soon :). She gives you amazing pointers and walks you through what you need to do to attrack the right kind of traffic to your website.

Specifically for creatives (YOU! :) she has created an awesome workbook called the Creative Workbook for Creatives. Here Angela walks you through a Business Plan to help you get started or continue with what you're doing and grow, how to set goals and hacks to be able to create even when your energy is low, tips on how to sell products and services online as well as how to gain clients and so much more!!

There are so many more of Angela's products that she has and I'll be adding them because literally as I'm reading through them, I'm getting new ones now. :). Once I finish going through them, I'll add them to this list and show you how you can use them to grow. :)

Thank you for joining us on this awesome interview with Stray Curls! Thank you also to Angela for this interview and for sharing the wealth of information you have learned over the years with us! We’d love to hear from you, my friend, if you have had any of the Stray Curls products, if there is anyone you’d recommend we highlight or if you have a guest post you’d like to see please comment below or send me an email. Take care and have a wonderful day!