The Creative Bodega | Content Marketing and Instagram Growth for Solopreneurs

49: How One Solopreneur Ended Her Content Overwhelm with a Visual System (Interview w/ Emily Odio-Sutton)

• Emily Connors • Episode 49

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Ever feel like you know what you do and who you help, but you just can't figure out how to make your brand stand out online? You're not alone! In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I'm sitting down with Emily Odio-Sutton—my very first official podcast guest (besides my husband!)—to talk about her journey from overwhelmed content creator to confident Etsy Print on Demand expert with a scroll-stopping Instagram presence. Emily shares exactly how she went from staring at a blank screen, wondering "what should I post today?" to batching a week's worth of content in just one sitting using reusable templates and a plug-and-play system. If you've been craving structure, clarity, and a content strategy that actually feels doable, this conversation is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode HERE!

Things I cover inside this episode:

  • How Emily built a six-figure Etsy Print on Demand business (and what the heck that even means!)
  • Why she joined The Visual Edit even though she was already a Canva pro—and what she learned that changed everything
  • The exact A/B week system that eliminated her decision fatigue and made content creation feel like clockwork
  • The two specific weeks inside the program that made everything "click" for her visual strategy
  • How investing in systems and expert guidance paid her back in time savings alone—and why that matters more than you think

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

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I use Canva a lot. My business itself, I know what it is. I know how I can help people, but it was like I needed help just bringing it together, right? And I thought this would be the right time with my course just launching and things like that. Like I knew like if I was gonna do it, it needed to really be now. Welcome to the Creative Bodega, a podcast about content marketing, Instagram growth, and personal branding for female service-based solopreneurs who wanna grow their business without letting it take over their lives. I'm your host, EM Connors, and each week I'll share actionable tips, expert advice, and unfiltered truths to help you create engaging content, connect authentically with your audience, and turn followers into loyal customers. All without the burnout. If you're ready to simplify your content creation, navigate the ever changing trends and build a business that works for you while staying sane in this crazy season of life, then you're in the right place. Alright, you guys, today's a very special episode because I'm bringing on my first ever guest that's not my husband. The only person I've ever had on this podcast besides myself is. My husband, and that's by design. Like I definitely wanted to start the podcast. With just myself and like really getting my feet wet with how to talk to a microphone without anybody on the other side for, you know, 20, 30 minutes. But the time has come where I think I would love to start bringing on some guests once in a while and the person I'm bringing on today, it was a no-brainer. I, I literally, it was, she was the first person I thought of when I realized that I would like to try to have somebody on. It is someone who has truly brought the work that. We do inside of my signature program, formerly known as the Insta Canva Collective. I believe it's being rebranded to the Visual Edits to Life. So Emily Odio Sutton is a Etsy Print on demand expert, and I'm gonna let her explain what that is because when she joined IXCI was I, I literally just. Had to have her explain it to me like three times at least. I'm like, wait, I've actually never heard of this. This is fascinating. But she was one of the standout success stories from our January, 2025 cohort, and when she joined, she was already building a really solid business. And that's, that's my people, that's who I really love. I, I'm actually not here to help you figure out your business. That's not my jam. I love women who come to me who are like. This is what I do. This is what I love. I just need help, you know, putting it out there into the world and standing out online. Right. But like so many of you, she felt super overwhelmed with content and maybe unsure of how to make her brand stand out or how to show up consistently and maybe, you know, constantly second guessing kind of what she was putting out on Instagram. So this episode's for you, if you're curious how real female solopreneurs who are using Canva. Really find a strategy that finally feels like them online. So without further ado, I am going to let Emily tell us more about how in the world she found herself becoming a Etsy print on demand. So welcome to the podcast, Emily. Thanks so much for having me. I can't tell you that's such an honor that you thought of me when you were thinking about a podcast guest, so that's so exciting. I really honestly did because I, I like, you know, I really enjoyed working with you inside of IXCC and. You know, I mean, you can tell the people like when you're in there for eight weeks, like we get to know each other. Yes, definitely. Yeah. It's not a program where you like are left to your own devices and you never hear from me. No, absolutely. No. So take us back to the beginning, like what sparked your interest in print on demand and Etsy. So I was like a lot of moms, I was working full-time. I had kind of a traditional eight to five job. I had always worked in education, so I had worked in a variety of capacities within education. So my career path was very traditional. You know, I went, I got my master's degree, I got my first job, and then I kind of worked my way up from there. And that's kind of what I knew when my older daughter was about a year out from starting kindergarten though, I was like. How are we going to manage school? Because, you know, up until that point we had utilized, uh, preschool and daycare. And we had like really steady coverage from eight to five, and I didn't have to worry, but then all of a sudden we were looking at school schedules, right? You have breaks and you they're out at two o'clock every day and oh my God, every other week it's a three hour early dismissal, a day off. I'm like, oh, ours is. Ours is every Friday they get out at one 15 or something. And again, I was working traditional eight to five. Yeah. So it really triggered this like slight panic, but also this motivation because like many of us, I'm on social media and I'm starting to get fed things and my algorithm about, oh, I made X number of dollars doing this and that, and I knew most of it was not super legitimate. But I started kind of filtering through it and I actually started, my first side hustle was selling, I was reselling products on Amazon and that I had gotten into through social media, taught me a lot, but I also learned it wasn't what I wanted to do long term. So then I came across a YouTube video about print on demand, and I was like, oh my gosh, this could be a really great fit for me. So Print on Demand is basically how I like to break it down. Is, it's just a fulfillment method, right? So you create a design, most of the time it's in Canva. I use Canva for my designs, and you add it to a product in a catalog on a site like Print Deify, which is my print supplier. And when that sells on Etsy. Purify does all the work of printing it, packaging it, and shipping it for you. So as a busy mom, I was working full time. It was like, oh, this is great. I can do the work on my laptop, I can design, I can do all of that, but I don't actually have to ever touch a product, which is what I was looking for, because I'm like, where am I gonna store all of this in my house if I was gonna do it myself? So, and the shipping part. That would, and the shipping. I wouldn't like that. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it really just started that way. It was like a very. There was just a major motivation to, yeah, find something. And I never really imagined it would allow me to leave my job. Yeah. And it has, which has been great. So I started selling Print on demand in January of 2023, and then by October I had hit my first six figures in revenue on Etsy. Then doubled that in the holiday season, and then things just kind of took off from there. Through that though, I started sharing a little bit about it on social media and I had created kind of like a business account just to, you know, learn and follow people and do things like that. And people just started kind of organically asking me, and that's kind of where my, like other half of my business started, which was really teaching people how to do this. Yes. So 2023. I mean, you were able to leave your job pretty quickly. Our stories are very similar. Literally, my kids were the same age preschool when I was like, what am I gonna do? Like I want to be able to pick them up if they're sick. I wanna be at the school events. And I had that nine to five, and my boss made us sit at our desk until five no matter what. Like, it was so frustrating. Yep. And, uh, he didn't have young kids and he just, he was not super kind. And I was like, and I'm a scaredy cat and I don't wanna ask to leave. It was like, no, I gotta get outta here. So did you start on Instagram? How did you start? You weren't teaching people initially, it was more sharing your products. Yeah. When I was selling on Amazon and I was doing that little stint on Amazon, I had connected with a few people, a few women in the Amazon space just to kind of learn from them and they were like, start a separate Instagram account that you can follow business related accounts and reach out to people. And my personal account is private, so I started kind of a public account and I wasn't. Posting for followers. I wasn't posting to teach anyone. It was more for actually for me to learn. And so that was really good advice. So I did that and I started networking and I say, I hate the word networking. I know, I know. It makes me want to like, you know, crawl into a hole. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. But I started going outta my comfort zone and like reaching out to people. Which I have learned is like such an important part of this whole entrepreneurial journey. Like, I wouldn't have connected with you if I hadn't, you know, put myself out there or joined, uh, a course or sent a DM or whatever. So I made this account so I could kind of start doing that. Well, I built some relationships just in the kind of mompreneur. Amazon, Etsy space, whatever. And I remember I would just like post on my stories, like, oh my gosh, this like print on demand thing actually works, you know? Yeah. I can't believe, like I would just share like my sales or whatever. It was very, yeah. I mean I had a following of 400. I mean, it was like a couple hundred people. It wasn't like big. Yeah. And people were like, how are you doing this? Yeah. Teach us how you're doing this. What are you doing? And. That's what really prompted me to be like, oh, maybe I should start like sharing more about this. And genuinely, I come from a education background, right? So for me, I'm like, oh, this feels like a really natural fit to also share. And I know my path with print on demand isn't the norm, but I think there are things I do different than some other. Experts in the space who are so knowledgeable, but my path looked a little bit different. So I was like, well, I should share what I'm doing differently and I can help, you know, some of these women and people who are kind of looking for that side hustle opportunity. Right. I love that. So you joined, um, I-I-X-C-C. I'm just gonna call it that. I should call it the, I've, I've talked to Emily about this, that we're changing the name to the visual edit. And then we'll have the messaging edit, which is all about messaging in the fall, the visual edit in January, which is all about your visuals and getting a system down for showing up consistently in a way that, you know, gets people's attention. So what made you join? I'm just gonna call it the visual edit from here on out. Okay. Yeah. What made you join that in January? So I had started taking Instagram a little bit more seriously in the fall of last year. Mm-hmm. And so that would've been fall 2024. And I was like, I was launching a course and a coaching membership, things like that. And I was like, I know I need to have a system. So for my Etsy business, I have systems in place. Yeah. Like for me. Nothing ever is just on a whim, like mm-hmm. I have templates that I use for my designs. I have like systems for my listing. Like everything is very systematized and it might be a little chaotic to someone looking in, but in my brain it all makes perfect sense. Right. Right. So I knew with Instagram and anything else I was doing, I was like, I need structure. Because I remember some days I would sit down at my desk and be like, I don't know what to post today. And I remember listening to you, I don't know if it was in your stories or where, and it was like. That doesn't work for me. And I was like, this doesn't work for me either. And I'm like, but I don't know how to fix this because I just didn't have the knowledge or the tools to just put that system in place. So when the visual edit was opening. This year, I was like, I feel like this is exactly what I need to just create my own system and have, you know, an expert really help me put that together. Because I feel like I had a lot of pieces, like mm-hmm. You did. You know, I, I use Canva a lot. I, you know, I have a pretty, my, my business itself, like I know what it is. I know how I can help people, but it was like I needed. Help. Just bringing it together, right. And I thought this would be the right time with my course just launching and things like that. Like I knew, like if I was gonna do it, it needed to really be now. And I think that's a super common struggle of a lot of people. It's very hard because when you have a program like this, like everyone's starting at different places. You've got people who have barely used Canva, and then you've got people like you who are very well versed in Canva. But I will say that even when people come to me and they're like, I've used Canva for a couple years, I don't know if I need the Canva part. Like would you say there were still things that you learned? Yes, definitely, because designing, you know, I design for products, right? Like I design for right. Gifts that I sell on Etsy, I don't have that same knowledge and experience when it comes to designing posts for Instagram. Mm-hmm. Or things that are going to grab, you know, your follower's attention or your non follower's attention. And even when I teach in for my own students, I'm like, designing for a t-shirt is very different than designing for a candle. And it's very different than designing for Instagram. So yeah, you have to really learn those skills and practice them. And I love getting. The feedback, especially like on colors and just like structuring your posts like what colors, you know, go well with other posts and like how to schedule those out and plan them out and stuff like that. That's a very different skillset than what I was doing, you know, in campus for two years. So it, it's different muscles that you're kind of having to, to work on and to grow. Yeah, and that's what I think was really, really helpful for me. That's cool. Yeah, I love that. How, and that's actually leads perfectly into my next question, like, how did the visual edit help your visual style on Instagram? Yeah, I think, you know, generally I, I was coming in with a decent amount of Canva experience, but what I basically wanted to leave with was like a plan. You know, I have, you know, Monday through Friday or Monday through Saturday, like I have a general idea of what I'm gonna be posting, but also like what. Color. So like we did in, in the course, we did an a week and a B week. Mm-hmm. And it was like, I know on a week on Mondays I'm posting a light color carousel uhhuh, and I know on Tuesday I'm posting a reel and I'm gonna do this kind of cover for that reel. Mm-hmm. And I know on Wednesday I'm gonna do more of a photo. Right. So it was, yeah. And so after we started doing that, it was like I never had to second guess what I was gonna be posting. Anymore on Instagram. Yeah. Obviously I had to create it or I had to, you know, redo something I had used before or like things like that. Yeah. But I wasn't like, oh, let me look back at my feed and see what color did I do last week? Like it was all very just like systematic and I could just follow that. And for me, that took out so much of the guesswork and it's the decision fatigue, like decision, oh my bad, I don't wanna figure this out. And I am like, I don't love making decisions all the time. Yeah. Uh, I'm also an Enneagram nine, so like for me, I'm like, mm-hmm. I don't wanna make dec, I don't wanna have to like sit here and like sort through this, like yeah, I'll procrastinate on it, whatever. So sitting down to like create, now I do my content one day a week. I sit down and I make it for the following week and it's just kind of like clockwork and it's like plug and play. Yes. Yeah. Yes. That's what like, yeah, and I love that. And it's not all plug and play. Like you need to come up with the concept for the post For sure. And what you're talking about. So there's some flexibility and in the moment kind of stuff there. But I tell people, like I, I hear my people, people who want a system, people who. I've had people join who are sort of like, oh, I just, there's, it's too rigid and I just wanna be able to post whatever I want that day. And I'm like, yeah, that's not me. Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah. Me either, like I, I have too many other things to figure out and too many other things I wanna work on in my business. Like I want a system and a strategy for showing up in a way that feels good and doable for me. And grows my business. I still remember your branding. I mean, obviously I follow you, like I love your branding. I feel like I told you that multiple times during the course. Like, oh my God, I love your branding so much. And thank you. That's something we do in the very beginning is like, yeah, all right, like let's figure out the colors you're using, the fonts you're using again, so that it's repeatable. And we have you put those colors into templates to see are they working? Is something off, are they too hard to use? Do you have enough background colors? Like all those things. Yeah. That just. Frustrate people while they're designing. Yeah. And I agree. I'm very much the same. I, I don't like to sit down and on a whim, just Yeah, create something. And, and I do agree. There is so much flexibility. Like I don't necessarily follow that structure every week to a tee. And it, it depends on kind of what's coming up. You know, I was creating next week's content and I was doing something kind of holiday specific and you know, it's like throwing in those things as they make sense. But having that general system. In place just takes away so much of the unknown and the wondering and having to sort through that now it's just so much easier. So would you say there was any specific week within, so each, just so everybody knows how the visual edit works, is you have modules or lessons that are released on a Sunday morning, and then we have group calls. On Thursday mornings where you can get feedback or ask any questions. But then we also have a community where I'm giving you homework for that, the lessons that week and you're posting it and getting feedback from everybody, uh, and specifically me and my co-coach. Would you say there was a specific week or or moment inside the program that made you say, oh wow, like this is all coming together, or This is gonna work for me? It was definitely, I would say two. So one was the week we had to submit templates to get reviewed and feedback on those. That was just super helpful to get your eyes on those and really kind of start bringing together like all the branding elements, right? The colors, the fonts, the visuals, like all of that came together. But then the week where we did do the plug and play of what, two weeks visually. So we have kind of love it. The five or six posts and the squares, and you have week A and week B if you're doing two weeks. And yeah, being able to kind of move them around and see what looked best, yeah, what made the most sense. And then also figuring out. What kinds of content, you know, we wanted to post those days, but having that visual there of this is what it would look like. Mm-hmm. Here's how things could balance out, you know, those things. And then that honestly became like a map for me every week. It was like, okay, let me refer back to this layout of what my post should look like, what colors, what templates I, I was using, things like that. And that just made it so much easier. Right.'cause you're like, wow, like these two end up on top of each other and that doesn't look great. Or Yeah, I need another background color because there's too many of the same colors, or I need to work more photos or, you know, cut out photos of myself Yeah. Into this to kind of break up how Graphicy looks like. It's pretty cool when you see it all kind of come together and, and there's usually just small tweaks. It's nothing like. A major overhaul, but, and it's usually pretty straightforward and, and simple how to do that. I mean, I try to always tell people like, I mean, your branding is a, a, a living and breathing thing. Like you're gonna wanna make tweaks along the way or you're gonna wanna add something in and that's okay. And these reusable templates that Emily's mentioning. That we review, like those are meant to be used for quite a long time. I literally use my reusable templates for, I mean, six months to a year at least. Yeah. And then I'll be like, I'll see something I liked better or you know, and I'm like, huh, I might retire that one and bring this one on board. Right. But I know how to create it. I know how to design it, I know how many colorways I need of it, and it's just an easy swap. So, you know, the visual edit. It was eight weeks when you took it. We're actually thinking of kind of cutting that down a little bit. Maybe just six weeks. We'll see. Did we do an implementation week in your group? I don't think so. I don't think so either. I think we just went for it. And yeah, sometimes we do an implementation week for people to catch up who are a little behind. But for someone who's like hesitant to invest in a program like this, you know, we do limit it to 30 women typically. It is a lot of handholding and a lot of feedback and it takes a lot of time for us. This is not something where we can plug your answers into chat, TBT, and get responses. This is so visual and we need to like really look at how it's all playing out so it's not cheap. Right. It was probably something like 2000 or$2,300. Mm-hmm. What would you say to someone who's kind of hesitant to invest that in their business? I mean, I totally understand a hesitation to invest. I would say a couple things. Number one is it really depends where you're at in your journey too. Like you have to be ready for it also. And if you're feeling ready and your business feels like you're ready to take this leap, it definitely is so worth it.'cause for me, alone in time, I've paid myself back for that. Right? Like just the time savings. In posting on Instagram and creating content, like if you were to look at it from like an hourly rate, I have more than paid myself back just for what I've learned during those eight weeks. So I think from that perspective, looking at it from a a time and knowledge, and it is an investment your business, but that's kind of what we have to do sometimes. Yeah. And that was hard for me early on. To when I was brand new to being a solopreneur, it was like, oh, I don't know if I can, you know, invest in that. But as my business started evolving and growing, I realized that I had to invest in experts that know more than me. I mean, the best thing to do is to be around people that know more than you so you can learn from them. And you know, I've had a coach before, I've been in a course or two, so like this is so helpful for just. Helping you evolve as a business owner and even just a person too, right? And I think there's just so many benefits to that. And of course you want it to be right for you. And the other thing I would say too is it is. A lot of time on your part, but it is like, there's time. I mean, there's homework. Oh my gosh. Yes. And a commitment. So I, but I, I get energized by that kind of thing. I love, I used to love like school and, you know, doing all that. So for me that was exciting. But it did, it help keep me accountable because it made me sit down and do things. I was kind of avoiding doing, honestly, that I was like, eh, I'll get to that later. Mm-hmm. But it really kind of made me stick to. A schedule, and I don't like things to be late, right? So I was like doing things on time and I know people will tell me like, oh, I start to see other people submitting their homework, and I'm like, oh my God, I gotta. And kind of go Brilliant. Yes. But that's, so, that's accountability. It's really great. Yeah. That's the two things that I need too. I cannot buy an instant access course. You know, I just did it. Yeah, we, so Emily, after my program, she's like, I think I'm gonna start YouTube. And I was like, you know what? I think I might want to too. So we both purchased a course I haven't done, I've gotten through module one and I haven't done it since then. Emily and Emily finished the whole thing and is like rocking and rolling on YouTube and I'm just. Still like. I need that, that live component that everyone's starting here and like, I need that, I need that so bad, that structure, because I'm also like a good student. Or if something's due at a certain time, like I don't, I wanna do it. I wanna, I wanna make everybody happy and proud of me. Right. So, yeah. I think that helps people a lot. Yeah. So this has been so great. So tell us now what, what you're, what you're up to. You said you have a course. Where can people go to learn more about you, and is there anything you're working on or launching that you wanna talk about? Yeah, sure. So the two main places that you can find me are Instagram obviously, and on YouTube. And my handle on both is E-com, Emily, so that's E-C-O-M-M, Emily, on both of those. So yes, I did just launch YouTube a couple months ago, and it's been great because honestly, I'm using a lot of the same. Systems that you helped me build, uh, for Instagram, I'm using those for YouTube as well, and that also doesn't feel like a heavy lift because. Having those systems in place and kind of training yourself to do that. So that's been great. And then, yes, I do have a course, it's called the Gift Lab. So I teach aspiring Etsy sellers how to sell print on demand products on Etsy, but not just t-shirts or anything. We focus more on giftable products because Etsy is really a go-to for gifts right now. That's kind of what they're pushing. I have a community that goes along with that, which I love supporting the students in there and coaching them and being really hands on with them. So yeah, lots of fun stuff happening and it's just been so fun. Uh, all of it has been so fun and I'm really loving it. I mean, you should be really proud of yourself. It's incredible. Thank you. Yeah, it's really cool what you've built. And definitely go check Emily out. I, I like all your posts that come across my feed. You're very good at like hooks. I'm always like, really? Is that just you? Thanks. I mean, like, do you Yeah, thanks. They're really good. Like, they make me stop my scroll and I'm always intrigued. I'm always intrigued. And I'll swipe through the carousel or I'll watch the reel. They're, they're very, very good. So she's awesome on Instagram and her YouTube videos are beautifully done. And yeah, so go check out. I'm like, I'm literally in the back of my head. I can't say, I've worked with many people where I'm like, I might wanna do what they do, but this is one, because I'm such a, I love branding, like, and I'm like, Ooh, if I could just design cool things and then people can go and buy them and I don't have to do all that, you know, the packaging and the making it and the shipping it, that's. Sounds so cool to me. Yeah, it's fun. Honestly, I like really just enjoy it. Like the days that I get to sit and design in canvas all day, I'm like, this is like a dream I mute on. Yes. Good to go. I'm same here. When it comes to just creating posts for social media, I'm like, if I can just not talk to anybody, put on my headphones and work in Canva. That's right. It's like playing all day long. Anyways, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to hop on the podcast as my very first. Legit guest changed. And yes, please, everyone. You can check out the show notes for this episode over on the creative bodega.com/blog/ 43. This is gonna be my 43rd episode. Thank you all for being here. Go check Emily out, and I will see you on the next episode. Thanks so much for hanging out with me on the Creative Bodega Podcast. If you love this episode, please be sure to share it with a fellow solopreneur. Who could use a little content creation inspiration. And hey, don't forget to check out the show notes for any resources I mentioned on the episode to help you create content that feels easy and actually gets you results. If you want even more Canva and content tips, head over to my website, the creative bodega.com, or find me on Instagram under the same name. Until next time, keep creating, keep showing up, and most importantly, try and have a little fun with your content. I'll see you on the next episode.