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00:00:02
Hello, and welcome to the Champagne Lounge. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Champagne Lounge podcast. Today I'm joined by the very vibrant, very fun Emma Veiga-Malta. Welcome to the show, my love. Hello.
00:00:18
Good to be here. So you and I have known each other only just a short while, right? A short while. I'm going to say a few months at the time of recording this podcast. A few months?
00:00:29
But it feels like a lot longer. I feel like I really connected with you. When we went to the conference, we met at the conference through mutual friends. I just really felt like I'd known you for ages. So it was kind of like speed dating.
00:00:42
That is the power of connection, right. And the power of conversation and being around like minded people. You just find them. You find your people when you're in the right zone. Now, Emma, you're working right now in the creative space, helping other creatives navigate, essentially make money from their business.
00:01:00
Right. Businesses make money from being creatives. Yes. What's your background and what led you into starting your business as the creative hub? My background is as an artist, so even at school, as a child, I was known as the art the art person and the stage girl and the one that was always doing the artwork.
00:01:18
Then I did a design degree. And so for the last 23 years, I've just always been doing artwork, doing my design work. And then as I became an adult, I realized I needed to make money from it. So from doing market stalls, I actually sold my first painting in a cafe and then on a market stall in Switzerland in 1998. I've kind of moved all the way through the last couple of decades selling my artwork, doing various things with my creativity to make money.
00:01:47
And then I realized that there's so many other creatives out there that don't know how to make money from their creativity, and they don't know how to run a business. So I really started in the weeds with every other creative.
00:02:01
And throughout that time, in terms of what actually made you go, I'm going to put my art in a cafe, what was going through your mind at that very beginning to go, this is how I'm going to sell it, and it's just going to start me on a journey that I don't know where I'm going to head off yet. Well, it involves illegal immigration because I had moved from London to Geneva and Switzerland, and I didn't have a visa to work. So I'd done my design degree, a fashion and textile design degree. I'd done my foundation fine art course, moved to Switzerland to be with my boyfriend. Couldn't get an actual job, even though I was working in the fashion industry in London.
00:02:40
And I realized that I wanted to make some money and do something for myself. So I thought, okay, I can start doing my artwork, and I was doing lots of sketching of architecture and nudes and someone that I met in an international women's business club. And again, I'm always connecting with really great businesswomen. They said, well, there's a cafe down the road called Cafe Desar So Art Cafe, and they're always looking for new artists. And I went, oh, my goodness, I've got all these sketches, all these artworks, I will just exhibit there.
00:03:09
And that's how it started, purely because I couldn't actually get a proper job, but I had to sort of make some money. I love that. I love that. My background in business building was very similar, but different. I wasn't illegal.
00:03:20
We're working without a visa, but I built my company to sponsor myself, right? So there were things we do to get around certain things. And so from that, you've gone from artistry. And I know because you and I chat on a regular basis, being in the Champagne Lounge and being connected, that you've only recently picked up the brushes again and gone back to art. So what is back to painting?
00:03:42
I should say? What has been the other creative pursuits you've done since that very first artwork in the cafe to now? Like, you've got a plethora of beautiful experience and you've tried and tested different creative businesses. So tell us about those. Well, so I did market stalls.
00:04:02
I had my own market stall in Switzerland, freezing my ass off in the winter. And then I actually started teaching art to adults in my studio. So I was lucky enough to have an art studio at home in Geneva and I started teaching adults and I had an art camp for kids, so holiday art camp at home that I opened up for two or three weeks in the holidays. And I would teach kids about art and link it to history of art and make it really fun. I've done paintings for interior design shops, so I actually was so brave back in the day, I would cold call with my big paintings to beautiful interior design shops in Switzerland, in Geneva, and say, do you want to sell them as part of the interior design schemes that you're selling?
00:04:49
So I've done that. And then I was obviously selling commissioned artwork to homeowners and residential private residences that they wanted artwork, so it was commissioned. And then in 2010, I moved to Sydney, to Australia, where I am now, and I opened a shop. The typical thing, I'm going to open a shop and I sold my art that was printed onto fabrics, that was upholstered onto chairs. So my artwork would be a painting that you could buy, then it would be a roll of fabric, and then I'd upholster chairs in it, so it'd be this whole beautiful suite of art.
00:05:28
And so I had this shop selling my chairs. Then I moved that online and I started a mass customization design, your own chair website. So this was back in 2012 when mass customization was coming in. Silicon Valley was really hot. Everyone was doing a startup.
00:05:46
I moved into the tech startup world with my design business. The design your own chair business won a pitch contest. Surprisingly, I didn't mean to win it, I just did. And they sent me to Silicon Valley for three or four weeks. And I realized I didn't want to pitch my business for funding.
00:06:03
And that's how I fell into using my artwork to design custom video backdrops. Because back in 2015, at this stage, people were starting to get into webinars, and video was really important for being in the entrepreneurial space. And I realized that my artwork and my fabrics, it was the same manufacturing, the same process, design process. I just had to remarket and remessage. So I started using my artwork on video backdrops so people could hide their messy spare rooms or kitchens and show up on video.
00:06:35
And so that I then developed that business from backdrops into branding. So I do still have a design business doing branding work using my artwork. Everything I've ever done has always used my paintbrush, my pencils, my artwork, my creativity. I've just packaged it up in different ways that makes it useful for different people. And at the moment, my usefulness is for entrepreneurs because I'm helping them with their branding and I'm helping them with showing up on video.
00:07:04
And then two, three years ago, I started the Creative Business Hub, which is where I mentor other artists, other photographers, other designers on how to run a business. Because as you've heard, I've done it. All and presumably along that journey, right. As with anything we're doing, particularly as creatives, there's some wins and there's some losses. Right.
00:07:26
Some things work and some things don't. Yes, that is so true. Some things really don't work. What didn't work, actually, is when I opened my shop.
00:07:37
I opened my shop in 2011, and I really believed that old adage that it takes two years to grow a profit in your business. So for the first two years of having this shop, I didn't look at my numbers, I didn't look at my profit and loss because I just thought, oh, it'll take two years. So in two years time, I'll be in profit. You just assumed that that would happen? I just assumed because I was always brought up to believe it's going to take a few years for any business to turn a profit.
00:08:05
And I also was very much of that. The old school. Kevin Costner. Field of dreams. Build it and they will come.
00:08:11
So my shop actually barely broke even. I think I even made a loss on it. But what it did do is give me an unexpected win. So the loss was that the business didn't work out so well. But I managed to get my artwork and my fabrics into vogue living and into house and garden and home beautiful because I had a physical space and I was still doing snail mail marketing.
00:08:37
So I'd send out fabrics and a beautiful box full of nice things to Vogue Living. So in a way, that was the win from the loss. And of course, I could leverage that coverage for many years to come. Even when the shop was gone, I could still sort of dine out on my Vogue Living story. I love that.
00:08:55
Part of me really hopes that you've printed or got a copy of that frame somewhere in your office. I do. I kept the whole edition. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I love it.
00:09:04
I love that so much. So you got the wins, you've got the losses. And as creatives, though, it's kind of hard to keep them on track, let's be honest. We like bright, shiny things. What have been some of the, I guess, the biggest failing that creatives have in the business world, but also their biggest superpower?
00:09:25
I guess when we're looking at business, how do you see that playing out? Is there a common golden thread across all types of creative people? I've noticed creatives generally are sort of multi passionate, multitalented, so they'll have their creativity that they can do anything with and they'll always be coming up with the next new thing or I want to sell this, I want to do this. And of course, that makes it very fractioned and your marketplace. If you're going to be running a business, your ideal clients are going to be very confused about what you're actually selling and who you're selling it to and what you're doing.
00:09:57
And it can get very messy. So that's kind of a problem with many creatives. They're just so impulsive and they can do so many things and they want to turn their hand to so many things. But what I always say is that that can also be turned into your superpower because you're never short of ideas. So you can always come up with new ideas, but you don't have to do all the ideas at the same time.
00:10:20
You can actually market one idea or start selling one particular item, but then keeping all your other talents and all your interests safely put away for another day. Or you can actually use your other skill sets as tools to sell the actual thing you're selling. So you don't need to sell everything that you're good at. You can say that I'm going to be selling X and Y product, but then use all those other things that you're really good at doing just as part of the process. And you don't actually need to sell everything that you do.
00:10:53
So that's the two sides of the same coin of being multi passionate and multitalented. It can trip you up if you're not strategic about. I can definitely relate to all of that and love it. The Champagne Lounge isn't just a podcast, it's an instant digital community for ambitious businesswomen and entrepreneurs like you, wanting more connection, community and celebration. So wherever you are in the world, whatever stage of business you're at, if you're looking for that ultimate female cheer squad of like minded women, head over to thechampainlounge.com to come and join us.
00:11:36
And so you're building the Creative Business Hub. You and I have met at a conference in Nusa where we have mutual connections, where has community and being surrounded by other business owners, other go getters, other peers. How do you see that helping your business growth as you've got to where you are now, but also how do you see what you've learned from a community perspective going into the creative business hub? Well, definitely if I look back at everything I've done in my creative career, as soon as I have stopped connecting with people, that's when things started getting sluggish. And I can actually attribute all the good things that have happened in my business to actually joining communities and showing up.
00:12:20
Even like my tech startup experience, that was because I actually went to meetups and I met people and that led me to Silicon Valley which led me to this person and that person. So every time I've actually done something good in my business or something's gone well, I can often link it with connecting with a specific community. And so I think it's crucial. Yeah.
00:12:44
It'S normally a lonely place, right? So knowing that you can get that complete trajectory and that springboard into something amazing just by talking and connecting with people is pretty magical. Exactly, and that's why I started the Creative Business Hub because there's a lot of business coaching and business communities but often when it comes to business coaching for creatives, there's a lot of layers and nuances that general business might miss out. And so you can feel quite lonely as an artist or a designer in the business space because there are not a lot of people that actually get what it is like to run a project or stare in front of a blank canvas. So that's why I created the business.
00:13:22
The Creators Business Hub is to teach people how to run a business, but also to create a community that people can feel normal in, that there are lots of other people around them doing similar things and you're not just doing it on your own. So community is really important. How have you seen those members inside your community flourish? Because presumably they've come in solo. Many creatives aren't necessarily extroverted.
00:13:47
I'd say you and I are quite extroverted people. The most creatives aren't though, they're quite insular in terms of they like their routine, they like being able to just get them into their work and they're very solo workers. So how have you seen some of them flourish in a community environment where you're enabling them to do what they love and make money from it? For starters, I've noticed that they're starting to connect with each other. Some of them are even working together, so they're hiring each other.
00:14:14
And I really encourage that people promote their businesses within the group. So there's been a lot of people connecting with each other professionally. And then when we come together on our monthly mentoring sessions live online, they start listening to other people's conversations, other people's problems, other people's challenges, other people's wins, and all of a sudden opens the perspective of what's possible for them. So they start maybe trying a new strategy or feeling that they're not so crazy doing what they were doing. And it just makes people feel really comfortable, and that's how they flourish.
00:14:46
When you feel comfortable and that you don't feel that you have to second guess yourself all the time, you feel more confident moving forward in your business because you know, you've got a whole community, including me, behind you, to help you flourish. So that's just crucial. 100% is crucial. It's having that community around you, that support network and what we call in the Champagne Lounge, the Cheer Squad, right? The ones that are there to keep you moving forward and pick you up if things are feeling a little bit tough.
00:15:14
Now, we mentioned at the beginning that you and I have only recently just met, right? And you've jumped straight on into being so much in my world and vice versa in just a couple of months, which I absolutely adore. What made you go? The Champagne Lounge. I want in on that.
00:15:28
What was it about the community? I know me, the marketing of it. What about the community made you jump in, but also, what do you love about being inside it? Because you turn up to a lot of stuff, and I love it. I do.
00:15:41
I love showing up to things. The first thing was I was actually beginning. You came along at the right time for me. I was feeling a little bit stagnant in some of the communities that I've actually I've just deleted so many Facebook groups and so many communities that I was in already, and I was just feeling a little bit stagnant, and you were just this breath of fresh air, and I wanted to connect with completely fresh people. And that's what I've done.
00:16:06
That's why I show up to your sessions, because one of my biggest mantras in life is 80% of success is showing up. You don't have to do anything special except show up. Most people do not show up, therefore they do not find those opportunities. So I do believe 80% of success is showing up. So I will show up to events when I can.
00:16:27
And I do like to be active and just listen to new conversations and new perspectives every time I hop into your group. There's women that I've never met before that now are slowly becoming my new business connections, and I'm learning from them, and I love the banter. I'm a real banter person. I don't like things to be too rigid and structured. When I go into a community, I like there to be a lot of banter and there is definitely in the Champagne Lounge and in the creative business.
00:16:57
Hub because you need to have a little bit more fun, right? A lot of fluid. And we're so conditioned to having so much structure in our worlds in terms of agendas. And you must do things this way and follow this blueprint to success that I think a lot of magic does happen in the space that we allow to have conversations to be creative. Would you agree with that?
00:17:18
Yeah, 100%. The spaces in between, which is why I like going to conferences and in person events as well, because, yes, you've got the agenda of the conference or you've got the agenda of the meeting or you got the structure of whatever the event is, but it's those chats and those conversations. It's the spaces in between where the real magic happens, which is how you and I met. In the spaces in between. In the spaces.
00:17:40
And over a glass of wine, I believe one of my favorite things that you said was, I'm having salad. Where's the wine? You're my lady. I love you already. It's so true.
00:17:51
I love to have a salad and a wine. I call that a balanced diet. I would agree. I would definitely agree. Now, talking of balance, one of the things that we do as business owners is we always strive for the next and strive for the next.
00:18:05
And we never necessarily take time to reflect and appreciate the things that we've done and acknowledge the work that we've put in and the achievements that we've made. What do you do to make sure that you have that balance of really being present to the things that you're creating, but also striving for the next thing? And how do you celebrate the milestones? Well, definitely I have quite consciously, with my husband, created a lifestyle business around my business and also my husband's business so that we have time to celebrate or do nothing or find time to do the stuff that we really enjoy doing. So I'm not just jumping from one thing to the next thing to the next thing because lifestyle is hugely important to me and it stops me from burning out.
00:18:52
But last year, actually, I realized I was burning out creatively because I was giving all my creativity to my clients, going from one project to the next project and never actually stopping and going, okay, what am I doing creatively for myself? How am I celebrating creativity for me and not just my clients? So 2023 really has been a celebration of reconnecting with creativity for myself. And you mentioned earlier that I started painting again and in the last year I have started going to life drawing classes to draw and paint the beautiful human form. I started painting.
00:19:25
I joined a talent agency for extra work and TV work. I volunteered for art societies locally. And in that way, it's not like celebration, like, yay, open the champagne bottle, but it's like a celebration of my creativity and finding time to connect with that again. And that feels really expansive and has helped me really connect with being creative. And that's something to celebrate because when you let your creativity go stagnant, then what's the point?
00:19:55
So it's important to take that time to reconnect. Definitely. You've articulated it so well and you've obviously created that for yourself with your husband to do that. For anyone listening before we sort of wrap up on the episode for anyone listening who's like, oh yeah, I'm feeling a bit stale right now, or oh yeah, my creative juices have kind of dried up. Now what am I going to do?
00:20:20
What were the things you started to implement? Because implementing a life or a business by design isn't just created in a beautiful map and all of a sudden it's perfect. What were the little things that people can start putting into their days, their weeks that you think will help brighten that creativity back up or really respark it? Well, the first thing is you need to be very clear on your be do, have and feel goals. Now, most people talk about your be do and have goals, but I often find that if you are aiming for something specific and you reach that specific goal, you might not actually be feeling the way you want to feel.
00:20:57
So I always encourage, especially my creatives, to start with your feeling goal how do you want your life to feel? And then match and align your B goals, your do goals, and your have goals to how you want to feel. So that when you do achieve those goals in your life, you're feeling the way you want to feel. So that's the first thing. Feeling goals really important.
00:21:19
Yeah, people always talk about your be do have goals, but what about your feeling goals? I start with feeling first and then align and cross reference all my other goals to those feelings. And then the second thing specifically for creatives or anyone that wants to be creative is if you are known for a certain creative discipline, like you're an artist or you're an embroiderer or you're a dancer, go to a class of a discipline that is completely different from what you normally do. Shake it up a bit, and then you'll still be scratching that creative itch, but you'll be doing it from a completely different perspective. If you're a watercolorist and you join a dance class, all of a sudden you're being creative but in a completely different manner, and you will bring elements of that creativity into your watercolor practice, into your actual creative discipline that keeps things fresh as well.
00:22:12
I love that both of those things I hadn't actually consciously got front of mind of doing different things. And actually, I'm not really a painter or designer or anything like that, but I did go to a pottery class as part of a retreat that I held, and doing it, the pottery on the wheels was just fabulous. That 2 hours just blitz pass and I felt fantastic at the end of that being creative in a different way. So I can definitely attest to feel goals and doing things creatively but different. I love that.
00:22:41
I love those takeaways. Emma, thank you so much for jumping on the show and chatting with me today. I'm going to link all of your special links and websites and where to find you in the show notes of the episode. But I've absolutely as always, you're a Ray Sunshine of conversation when we connect. So thank you for coming on the show.
00:22:58
My pleasure. I love chatting with you anytime. Thanks for listening to the Champagne Lounge podcast. If you'd love to be part of our thriving global community, head over to thechampaignlounge.com to join us.
