088: Learn alongside me as I pursue multiple business ventures!

[00:00:00] Hello friends. We are going to start something new today, and in today’s episode, it’s just going to be me. My intention when starting this podcast back in 2021, was to focus on merging business with TTRPGs. Now, while Matt isn’t able to join as my co-host for now, I did like how we were going to do a deep dive on specific topics and shorter episodes in between interviews.

And that’s something that I want to keep doing. I haven’t [00:01:00] fully decided on how this is going to look or how often it’ll be yet as talking to myself for awhile seems strange. And it is something that I’ll have to get used to. To kick all of this off. I am in a period of transition and starting a lot of new things. I thought it could be interesting for you all if I went over the current state of everything that I’m trying in this self-employment state. I’m trying out multiple ventures, and I think being transparent about my processes and what works or doesn’t work could provide you with some ideas or inspiration in your own endeavors. Plus putting it all out there is a form of accountability for myself, especially if I plan to keep you updated on a regular basis as I go. As I said, I’m in the middle of multiple things that are in the early stages and it feels kind of like a throw everything at the wall and see what sticks situation.

Ever since my latest surgery in January, I’ve had a hard time being able to sit or stand for more than a few minutes at a time. [00:02:00] It makes looking for full-time work frankly, feel impossible, which is part of the reason why I am trying all of these things on my own. It also makes it a bit difficult to work on my projects consistently, as I never know how much time I’ll be able to devote on any given day. But all that being said, I do have a lot of ideas and I intend to do my best to get them going.

Let’s break it all down. In future episodes, if y’all are interested, I can go into more detail of exactly what steps I’m taking for each of these activities, and maybe even a cost breakdown, but for now, let’s just do a high level overview of all of it.

First off we, of course have, Lightheart Adventures. Lightheart is the business that my husband and I started back in 2019. It began as a Brenton writing blog posts, making one-shot adventures for D&D and drawing battle maps for those adventures. He also published multiple map collections for D&D adventures on DMsGuild. I worked in the backend on the admin [00:03:00] side of things and created the website. We eventually added a Patreon and this podcast and he stopped making blog posts and the DMsGuild publication so that he could focus on the one shots for Patreon. We were able to also add some more income to the business when he became a freelance writer for Wyrd games, the makers of Malifaux, and Through the Breach.

So let’s talk about where I come in. I obviously have this podcast. Sadly, it does not bring any income in right now, but that’s all right. I love chatting with folks, and honestly, it’s been a really great way to network. Then about two years ago, I became a project manager for Burnaway, which was the TTRPG that has actually a finished layout and is about to get sent off to the printers. So super excited to get that book in a few more months and actually have something with my name in the credits.

That was an interesting situation [00:04:00] because it was that creator and my first attempt at a Kickstarter. And so we agreed that I’d keep my rates pretty low because I would be learning the process alongside him. And it’s taken a while to get to this point, but we’re here and it was a fabulous way to learn. About six months ago, I added another client and we will be launching a few crowdfunding projects next year. So combining these experiences with my decade of full-time project management roles in corporate settings is why I am moving forward into the first of the new ventures. Which is that I’ve officially set myself up as a freelance TTRPG project manager. This is pretty new.

I was going back and forth for a while on whether I should set up a whole new website for myself. Or if I should just add a page to the Lightheart Adventures site and eventually decided to stop using that [00:05:00] as a stalling tactic. And for now, I just have a new page on the Lightheart Adventures website. It’s very much targeted towards TTRPG projects or other gaming projects. I think eventually I can set myself up to have my own project management, freelance website that makes it a little more inviting to other industries. But honestly, the gaming projects are my favorite and what I would love to focus on.

Since I just finished setting this up, all I’ve really done so far is just announced that it exists on some social media platforms and also in a bunch of different discord servers that I’m in. Obviously I need to do a lot more than that. But we’ll get there. We’ll get there. I think I spent the most time in this actual setup process, just trying to figure out a calendar scheduling system so that people could just book an appointment with me without having to email me, and go back and forth [00:06:00] and just all of that fun hassle that adds way too many steps to the process. So if you go to the page, now, what you see is that I’ve got three different packages. The first two have specific prices because it’s like, okay, you’re going to hire me for an hour long conversation where you know what you’re doing for the most part.

You just want some advice on like a specific thing. The middle package is set up to be aware. You can hire me for three sessions that are all an hour long, and it’s essentially to help you get kickstarted with starting your project. Helping you learn how to make a project board and what needs to be on the project board and just go over specific topics.

You have questions on. And then the third one, there’s no set price on it because it’s okay. At that point, you’re hiring me to be your project manager. So we got to talk about what that entails and how much commitment it’s going to take.

It’s been a lot to get that set up and I have no idea how well this is going to go, but it’s the first of the new, big things [00:07:00] that I am starting.

So then there’s comes the next thing, which if you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, or if you have been following me on social media for a couple of years, then you’ll know that I have sporadically been working towards starting an online shop that has nothing to do with project management.

But does kind of have something to do with TTRPG related endeavors. First, got this idea a couple of years ago when I was going through my first bout of medical stuff and didn’t have a job and all those fun things. And essentially I decided that I wanted to create some nerdy pet accessories.

There’s so many people out there that make bandanas and bow ties and collars and all sorts of fun things. But if you actually try to find like D&D specific [00:08:00] designs. There’s really not a whole lot out there. You might find a couple with dice. That’s about it. And so Brenton and I were just chatting and trying to brainstorm some things that I felt like I could do while I was not able to work full time. And we came up with this idea to have Brenton design these patterns that were based on D&D classes.

And that we could have it printed on fabric that I would then use to create my own accessories. So I got started with this and decided that for initial launch, that we would do four patterns and I came up with four sizes for collars and bandanas and two sizes for bow ties and that I would make 10 of each.

So. 10 extra small collars, 10 small collars, 10 medium, 10 large collars. For each of the four patterns, because I just felt like a good starting blank. And then I could see what was selling and what was not selling. And if this was [00:09:00] even something that was going to be feasible. That’s all I was working on it off and on. In between bouts of medical, flare ups and whatnot. And then I wound up getting a full-time job and because of the medical stuff, I just wasn’t able to focus on sewing and actually getting an Etsy store set up or what have you.

And so it was just a lot. And I felt really guilty about it because I’d been working so hard towards this. But I just had to honor my body and just be able to focus on the full-time job and then this podcast, and then just. Decided at some point I was going to come back to it.

Fast-forward through three more surgeries, and now that I’m not working full time. It’s time to move forward with us. So I’m honestly in a weird position right now where, I’ve been putting this off for so long and I really need to get this going. And I had this whole plan where I just spent this [00:10:00] last week out of town about an hour and a half away, house sitting and pet sitting for my sister-in-law. And decided, okay, I’m going to use this week.

I’m going to get all the listings set up because I finally finished sewing those initial ones. It’s going to be great. And then I’ll just launch when I get back. And then my dad is now having surgery two days before Thanksgiving. And I went well.. I have to go to Florida because going to be just scary time, need to be there. Flights are not exactly cheap, so going to be there for two weeks and it’s like, well, it feels kind of gross too launch a store and then be gone for two weeks, right at holiday time. So instead what I’m doing, is soft, launching to basically my Facebook, which is really just people that I know personally. To where it’s friends and family who have also seen me posting about this off and on. We’re not going to talk about how many years. And I decided, you know, what? It’s time. Let’s just, we’ll [00:11:00] do a soft launch.

We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see how much I actually sell, I’ll, go out of town. And then after that point, I will assess my inventory and then launch for real, depending on how much I need to create, because hopefully they buy a lot. We’ll see.

I’m also just going to start with Etsy because it’s the easiest.

I know it’s got a lot of issues and some very valid issues, but I decided that just because I’ve been hesitating on this for so long that let’s just get started with an Etsy store and, as long as I can keep up with it then all right. I’m going to eventually create a separate website where folks can shop. And here’s another interesting thing that has kind of been. a point of debate is: all of this has so far been intended to be under the Lightheart Adventures brand name. And that was something that Brenton and I were discussing a lot [00:12:00] was the fact that, okay, we’ve got the Patreon with the maps.

We’ve got freelance project management. We’ve got this podcast, and now we have pet merch and while they’re all loosely related by being tabletop related. I just, it feels like a lot to throw under one brand. And so what we’re doing at least for now is

keeping it all under the same LLC, keeping it all under the same brand. But we’re going to break it up a little bit. So I already, after basically leaving Twitter and creating accounts on threads and blue sky,

I’ve got a Roll Play, Grow account now on those platforms, that’s separate from the Lightheart Adventures account. And so, because this podcast is meant to be business focused. We figured that it makes the most sense for me to be advertising project management on the Roll Play, Grow accounts. Whereas the pet [00:13:00] accessories, well, A different audience, technically in that it’s pet stuff is still on the more artistic side, which goes along with his maps.

And plus Brenton’s the one that’s drawing both of those things. So we’re going to try it out and we’ll see what works. The feed might look a little weird because we’ll be advertising maps and also pet things, but you know what. We’ll figure it out. Like I said, we’re just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. So it’s kind of how we’re thinking about dividing those things up. I also have been intending to make some project management templates that would go along with offering the consultation. And. Some of it is at least the first. Batch of those templates will be more TTRPG focused.

So if you’ve got projects that you’re working on and games, then. You can grab those templates, but honestly, They will work for pretty much any kind of project out there. So TBD on [00:14:00] how I progress on that. I’ve definitely been dealing with a lot of, uh, Procrastination on that front.

So that’s all of the things under the Lightheart Adventures umbrella.

Meanwhile, because I obviously don’t have enough going on, I decided to start a new venture that began really about two weeks ago. So something else that I’ve been thinking about for a really long time is wanting to have some social media accounts around my chronic illness. So Brenton and I have talked a fair a couple of years now about traveling full-time for at least a year or two. You know, getting an RV or a fifth wheel, most likely. And just traveling around the country and exploring, seeing the sites, deciding where we would want to settle next, because honestly, we have moved around a lot in our relationship. And [00:15:00] it’s just been a dream and there’s been a lot of things that have caused us to push that dream back or think that it may not happen at all.

It’s been a bit of a struggle just to know, will this happen or not?

Especially just with the way that my health has been. I still don’t know if it’s going to happen. I still really want it to happen. And one of the ideas I thought about for, okay, how can I sustain this would be. To have some sort of account that was focused on traveling full time when you’re disabled or when you have a chronic illness. And I came up with all these names, like the chronically ill hiker or the chronically ill traveler.

But the problem with those names is that I felt like it would be misleading if I wasn’t already traveling and hiking. And that’s not something that I’m set up to do right now. Like I can’t even sit in a chair, like, how am I supposed to drive across the country? You know? Or like, I can walk on flat surfaces for a short amount of [00:16:00] time, but I certainly can’t go on a hike. And while maybe that’s just me being in my head, it felt it would be a little misleading if I had that name. And so I finally decided that the accounts that I would want to make would be focused on bringing awareness to the types of disabilities that I have. Namely that I’ve got a genetic disorder called Marfan’s syndrome.

It’s a connective tissue disorder. I have pots or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. And I’ve honestly just gone through a lot over the last couple of years, let alone all of my life. And so a lot of the account is going to be raising awareness about these things. Talking about things like how to advocate for yourself at the doctor’s office, because a lot of doctors will Gaslight you, or if you need to apply for social security disability, [00:17:00] here’s some things that can help in this really ridiculous, complicated a process that our government has.

I’ll also, of course go into the trends of TikTok and things. So there’ll be a lot of more fun videos interspersed in between the more educational ones. I want to raise awareness. And then I’ve also decided that I want to create templates for medical binders. So, you know, you go into the doctor’s office and you’ve already got all of your symptoms listed out.

You’ve got your medications, your diagnoses. All this fun stuff. But then of course also trackers. So let’s say that you have POTS and your heart rate is all over the place. Having a place to write down like what your heart rate is of what was the triggering events for that? I brainstormed a whole long list of ideas. Well, I’ll just see how it goes. but I think that offering some of the [00:18:00] templates that I use myself could be helpful. And it could be something that evolves into another product line that I’m able to offer in the future.

So, like I said, there’s a lot going on. I’m probably biting off way more than I can chew, especially when you consider just how much I’m still struggling with my health. But all of this is intended to be a way to really help me be able to do work that I love that I’m enjoying while not having to worry about going back into an office for 40 plus hours a week, because just to be completely Frank, my body’s not equipped for that right now

and I have to respect that.

So, whatever it is, that is your reason for wanting to start your own business

I do appreciate that y’all are here and I hope that me sharing my struggles is [00:19:00] helpful for you. Because hopefully, you know, we can talk about the mistakes that I make and that will help you avoid mistakes. If I find something that really works, then I want to share that with you. So I know that maybe this isn’t quite as exciting as the super cool interviews that we do, but I do want to start interspersing these shorter episodes in here so that y’all can kind of keep up with me. It helps me stay accountable and actually be motivated to get things done, because I know that I have to tell you that I did a thing. Even if I don’t necessarily feel like doing it.

But overall. I’m excited to launch this little mini series, if you will. And I hope that y’all are also excited about it. If there are any specific topics that y’all want me to cover please, let me know. You can send me an email at Roll Play grow at gmail.com. You can find me on blue sky threads. I am still technically on Twitter. [00:20:00] Although, not with a Roll Play Grow account. That would be Ketra. Dot RPG. Either way, let me know what you are interested in hearing about.

If you’ve got any questions. Even if you just want to offer some support As I venture into probably way too many things all at once. Then, let me know. I would love to hear from you. [00:21:00]