Meet Kathleen Rogers
I’m excited to continue our interview series this week with yet another fabulous student from #annesuniverse! Kathleen Rogers and I first met in 2019 when she took my From Doodles to Dollars® mini-course and then enrolled in my signature program, The Pattern Design Academy®.
Get ready to be inspired because everything she shares with us is about living a life where you follow your passion.
As a child, Kathleen loved making dollhouses out of cardboard boxes and decorating the interior spaces with paper from comics, paint chips and other unique finds. It’s no surprise that she went on to study interior design in college.
Today, she runs an online business that’s all about tea which has been another passion of hers for years.
Grab the full transcript of her interview here or keep reading for a recap with key takeaways and highlights. The interview itself is over on my YouTube channel here. Please subscribe to my channel when you pop over there to watch it.
Here are three highlights from Kathleen’s interview that I think you’ll love:
#1 – Follow your passion.
Kathleen has been involved in the tea industry for 25 years, running her own tea business. Over the years, she has expanded the business to include a monthly membership that includes tea room reviews, a book club focused on books that involve tea or lifestyles that involve tea, and beautiful products like tea cosies and cards that feature her beautiful designs.
One of the biggest benefits of running an online membership instead of running your own tea shop is… there’s a lot less cost involved! Just think about it. When you have a retail store you need to own inventory of the products you’ll sell. A membership is an experience with valuable content delivered online and a community with shared passions. Something to think about, right?
#2 – Keep learning new skills.
Kathleen originally came into #annesuniverse because she had trouble finding fabric with pretty tea-inspired imagery to make her tea cozies with. When she found my programs she realized she could learn to put her unique designs onto fabric and other products. She got started with my From Doodles to Dollars mini-course and then enrolled in my Pattern Design Academy® program.
She’s such a great example of how you can turn the dream of seeing your designs on fabrics into reality by acquiring the skills needed to make fabrics with repeating patterns on them and/or creating artwork for placement prints. She’s using the skills she acquired to expand her line of tea cosies with her own unique designs! How cool is that?
#3 – Expand your reach.
Kathleen showed us some pieces she’s designed, and you’ll notice that she loves to create placement prints - design elements that stand alone or work in groupings. Mixing different elements - teapots she’s drawn or painted, a tea quote and other motifs - creates perfect designs to use on the products she sells.
While Kathleen began her journey learning to create repeating patterns in Illustrator, she expanded her reach by using these same skills to create placement prints and spot graphics. Much of her work also translates beautifully into stand-alone illustrations.
You can learn more about Kathleen on her website, settoatea.com, or on Instagram @settoatea. Check them both out to learn more about her wonderful tea membership.
To read more inspiring stories about students in #annesuniverse, pop over to my special “celebrate” page HERE. While you’re over there, join the waitlist for my signature program: The Pattern Design Academy®. Enrollment opens again in May.
Feel free to pop over to my YouTube channel to watch the video version of this blog. Please subscribe while you’re over there. I’d really appreciate and it makes a big difference for my channel.
Don’t forget to join me LIVE for my weekly Wednesday chat on Facebook. Every Wednesday. Noon pacific / 3pm eastern. Click HERE to bookmark my page.
Bye for now!
xo,
Anne
Dive even deeper into how to Craft a Career You Love in Surface Design by downloading my free ebook HERE.
Have fun and I’ll see you next week.
Remember,
It’s Never Too Late to Create®
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation. I grew up in Paris on the Place St. Sulpice and walked to school through the Luxembourg gardens. And that was only the beginning… Learn more by watching the video on my About page.
