Raksha Patel, of Reflect with Raksha, shares how her YouTube channel about bullet journaling led to the creation of a successful product business 3D printing stencils to help fellow bullet journalers. 

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Today I’m interviewing a YouTube sensation, Raksha Patel of Reflect with Raksha. Raksha has over 15K subscribers, and uses journaling to help people slow down, reflect and pursue what really matters to them. Raksha believes that by looking after our minds and getting to know ourselves better, we can live happier and more fulfilled lives. 

In this episode we explore bullet journaling and its benefits, building an audience on YouTube and how this community led to Raksha creating her own products using a 3D printer. I’ve never met anyone who is using a 3D printer to create their products before, so I was fascinated to learn about the process and how it works. It is much more accessible than I realised, and is something that anyone could do from home. I hope that you are as inspired as I was by this episode, whether it is to start bullet journaling or experiment with a 3D printer!

Listen in to hear Raksha share:

• An introduction to herself and her business (01:22)
• How she started on YouTube (02:00)
• How her YouTube channel has grown, and the opportunities it has created (05:21)
• How the YouTube audience and community has influenced the development of her business (08:21)
• What Bullet Journaling is (11:53)
• The products that she has created (19:00)
• Using a 3D printer (28:31)
• Future ideas for products and her business (36:07)
• Her number one piece of advice for other authors (40:32)

USEFUL RESOURCES:

Raksha’s Youtube Channel

Raksha’s TikTok

Raksha’s Instagram

Raksha’s LinkedIn

Raksha’s Twitter

Raksha’s Website

Raksha’s Etsy Shop

Raksha’s Newsletter

The Bullet Journal Method Book

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Welcome to the, Bring Your Product Ideas To Life podcast, practical advice,

and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products.

Here's your host Vicki Weinberg.

So today I'm talking to Raksha from Reflect With Raksha.

So Raksha is what I would call a YouTube sensation.

She might not describe herself as that.

Um, what Raksha does is she uses journaling to help people

slow down reflect and pursue what really matters to them.

Raksha believes that by looking after our minds and getting to

know ourselves better, we can live happier and more fulfilled lives.

So we talk a lot about bullet journaling is that's how Raksha got started.

But we also talk about is the products that she sells.

Um, I was fascinated to find out that Raksha actually

3d prints her own products.

I haven't come across anyone doing that yet.

Um, and yeah, her whole business model is just really fascinating to me.

Um, also you probably know by now I'm really interested in people who,

whose main businesses are service, but they found a way to add on really

useful and interesting products to what they're doing already.

So I would love now to introduce you to Raksha and I hope you enjoy

this conversation as much as I did.

So hi Raksha.

Thank you so much for being here.

Hi Vicky.

So can we start with you, please give an introduction to yourself,

your business and what you do, what you make and what you sell.

Yeah, I'm Raksha.

And I recently started a small business called Reflect with Raksha and, um,

I basically, I use journaling to help people slow down, reflect and

pursue what really matters to them.

Um, because I believe that by looking after our minds and getting to

know ourselves better, we can live happier and more fulfilled lives.

Um, and that's what Reflect With Raksha is all about really.

Amazing.

Thank you.

And can you talk a little bit about how and when you started.

I started back in 2020 pretty much when the pandemic started, um, I've

been bullet journaling for a few years.

And around that time in 2020, I was using my bullet journal a lot

more, um, to reflect because I just left my corporate job and I was

looking to start something new.

And then this big pandemic hit as well.

And I had children, young children at home and, and lockdowns to, to manage,

um, So I had a lot to get out onto the page and I thought, um, one day I just

thought I'd start sharing my journaling process on YouTube and it's something

I'd seen other bullet journalists do.

But I noticed that my own bullet journal style focused a lot more

on mental wellness and mindfulness.

So I thought why not share it and see if there are people who find it useful.

Um, I start, I started sharing my journaling ideas on YouTube and I did

it for a few months and, um, I noticed that slowly but surely people were

starting to find my videos on YouTube and they were telling me that my

bullet journal exercises were really helping them through difficult times,

especially with the pandemic going on, but also personal issues that

people were having and medical issues.

And, um, they were finding the kind of reflection exercises that

I was sharing really helpful.

Um, and I guess one thing just led to another, it started with a video

on YouTube and all of a sudden it turned into a whole brand with a blog

and a shop and a weekly newsletter and a service for other brands.

Um, and I guess the interesting thing is I didn't really start this

with a predefined business plan with milestones and all of those good

things that you're supposed to have.

I just started with a small step, which was sharing my thoughts online

and just built on it from there.

Amazing.

Thank you.

Um, yeah.

So it sounds like it's happened really organically, I guess when

you started out on YouTube, did you even think of it as a business then?

Or was it something you were just doing in the hope of help

helping people or did you, yeah.

Did you think that actually one day this might become something or was it

just, I'm going to start putting out these videos and see what happens?

Well, around the time, I, I really, I was thinking a lot about wanting to

work for myself and maybe starting my own business, but it was kind of one

of those things that you just talk about and think about a lot and you

watch other people online doing it, and you just have no idea how to start

for yourself and what you could offer.

And I never really knew what value I could offer to others.

And that was the part I really struggled with that.

I was just stuck in this kind of analysis paralysis kind of state where I just kept

thinking and not really doing anything.

And when I wasn't doing anything, I wasn't really learning anymore

about what I could be doing.

And I thought that I suspected that by sharing, just taking that small

step in sharing something online, I suspected that would help me get

closer to what I could really offer.

Amazing.

Thank you.

And can you just talk us through a little bit?

I'm really fascinated because you know, you do a lot now as

well as your YouTube channel.

So it's grown in past two years now.

Isn't it almost exactly two years.

And now it seems like you have so much more than that.

So would you mind just talking us through sort of how, you know, where things

went from, you started to have YouTube.

What happened what came after that?

We obviously, you don't need to remember dates and orders exactly.

Just be nice to have an idea of what, what got you to here.

Yeah.

Um, well, yes, as you said, starting Reflect with Raksha led to so many

different opportunities, um, beyond what I started with, and now I not

only run Reflect with Raksha but I also work with brands on projects for them.

And I do freelance work as well.

So one part of what I do is manage, Reflect with Raksha and that's sharing

my ideas on YouTube and on my blog and in my weekly newsletter and also creating

products for people to use for journaling.

Um, but another stream that formed over time is the

freelance projects with brands.

So for example, currently one of the projects I'm working on is I'm

designing custom stencils for a stationery brand and, um, that they

can sell with their journals and they're similar to my stencils but I'm

just designing them for the brand and working with them to provide journaling

stencils to, to their customers.

Um, and I also have.

Freelance work going on for Bullet Journal.

So that's the company owned by the creator of bullet journaling, um, Ryder, Carroll.

Um, they found me online and I worked with them to help the community

connect with the true purpose of bullet journaling and understand the method.

And I now run their YouTube channel using everything that

I learned from running my own.

So there's a lot of different streams now that have just come

about over the years, just after sharing my own journal on YouTube.

Um, and they all kind of work together and tie in together because what I've

learned from one stream, I applied to another and my experience and knowledge

with bullet journaling and well-being and social media strategy is growing

from all of these different streams and I'm able to apply it to all of them.

So it's really interesting how it's all developed over the last two years.

Yeah.

I mean, that's a lot, isn't it?

Um, in two years, that's amazing.

Thank you for sharing all of that for you.

It sounds like there's loads of streams, what you're doing, loads of opportunities.

And I think that's really interesting that just by starting to sort of

record yourself and go public on YouTube, like where that's led to.

I think that's really amazing.

And as you, you said at the beginning, when you weren't sure what you wanted

to do, and you had a feeling that putting something online would help.

Yeah, I guess that has caused some of the things that, that you've.

Um, I want to talk in it in a little bit.

We'll talk about some of your products in more detail.

Um, so I'm just curious in as if it's been like your blog and your

newsletter, um, have they evolved from sort of people telling you,

oh, this is what they want from you?

Or has it been you know, what you wanted to do, if that

makes sense, or a bit of both?

It's been a bit of both, actually, it's been really helpful having feedback from

the community and growing that community on YouTube, because then I did have people

coming to me and telling me some of the kind of day-to-day issues they face,

um, with trying to be more productive or trying to slow down or trying to,

uh, Make time for what matters to them.

Um, so people came to me with questions and asking for advice.

And I either use that to make a video about it, or I wrote a blog post about

those things and it turned into, um, it, it became a lot broader than just bullet

journaling alone, and it just became about general wellbeing and mental wellness.

Um, and I have, I also have a background in psychology and neuroscience,

so I bring a lot of that into my blog, where I talk about theories in

psychology, um, and personal development and growth and that kind of thing.

Um, and I write blog posts about that as well, which helps answer some of

the questions from the community.

That's brilliant.

It's great that you've sort of built that.

I actually don't know anyone who's built a community on, on YouTube

because you don't really think of it as being a of it being a community.

You know, when, when people talk about communities, my mind instantly

goes Facebook group, or, you know, small businesses on Instagram.

So it's, I'm really fascinated that you done done that.

And I think it's great that people have been giving you that feedback,

because I guess that's informed, um, everything you're doing, including I'm

assuming some of your products as well.

Yeah, definitely.

It's really helpful to have that community.

And as you said on YouTube, YouTube is a much bigger audience.

Um, and then the community then is a much smaller audience that then,

uh, are much more invested in Reflect With Raksha and follow the blog and

receive the newsletter and reply to the newsletter and share their own people.

I'm finding that people are sharing a lot of their own personal

information with me as well.

And we're all kind of learning and growing together, which is, which is really nice.

Yeah, that's really interesting.

So it sounds like the community sort of starts on YouTube and it's kind of coming

off there as well as people are finding you and, following you in other places.

Yeah.

I do find it really important to take it off of YouTube as well, because.

Um, you can connect with people a lot better through maybe

the newsletter and over email.

Um, and, and that's where I share my newsletter.

I share a lot more personal information, a lot more personal things that I'm going

through or learning and reflecting on.

Um, and it just feels a bit more.

Intimate, I guess.

Yeah.

I think that makes sense because obviously on YouTube, you're

sort of effectively talking.

You're not talking to everyone, but you could be, cause anyone can

come along and look at a video, but emails are to people who've chosen

to be on your list and give you email address and want to hear from you.

So I think you're right.

It's a different conversation.

Isn't it?

Because you open it a bit more vulnerable with those that have chosen to receive a

Completely.

So I would love to talk a little bit about your products and how, and

when you started to create your own.

But I think it might be a good time to actually talk a bit more about bullet

journaling in more detail, um, because I'm sure that there was some people

listening, thinking this all sounds great, but what is a bullet journal?

Yeah.

Um, I, I think I mentioned to you before we recorded, I have an idea.

Well, I thought I had an idea of what bullet journalling was, and then, um,

when I started following you, actually I thought, oh, actually, this is.

Quite what I thought it was.

And it may be that that's because you're using it in a different way.

Cause obviously your focus is on wellbeing.

Um, so it'd be great to talk a little bit about what bullet journaling is, what

the benefits are and maybe some of the different ways that they can be used.

Yeah.

Um, so bullet journalling is.

It's a journaling method.

Um, a very specific method that was created by a guy called Ryder Carroll.

Um, and the method itself focuses on combining productivity with

mindfulness and Ryder Carroll actually describes it as a mindfulness system

disguised as a productivity tool.

Um, and there's a whole book dedicated to explaining the methods.

So I know I won't do it justice here, but I'll do my best.

Um, and the aim of it is to help you discover and focus on the

things that really matter to you.

Um, and the way you start really is just by getting yourself a nice new notebook.

Um, and at the beginning of the notebook, you set up some pages for

yourself to use throughout the year to help you stay close to the things

that are really important to you.

Um, And to help you stay on top of the things that you need to do as well.

Um, so for example, I always start my journal with a motivational quote or a

reminder for myself for that for the year.

Um, this year, my quote that I wrote in was Dear 2022, I am ready

because I felt like I really needed to hear that when I was going into

the year to kind of have the strength to do everything I want you to do.

So I put that in as a reminder, and now every time I look

at it, I get this kind of.

Motivated feeling, and it just makes me feel stronger.

So, um, you really personalize your bullet journal and put in the things that you

need to hear or that you need to see.

And then, um, I dedicate a page to my goals for the year and what they

are and why they're important to me.

And the bullet journal method really encourages you to focus

on your why, um, cause it, and it really helps you understand your

motivations so that you're always making the right choices for yourself.

Um, And so, um, I have various different things that help me do that.

Wellness trackers to log how much I'm exercising.

So I'll draw out calendars using one of my stencils and color colour in

when I've done yoga or been for a run.

And this really helps me stay close to my wellness goals.

Um, but you can do, you can do set these things up in really simple ways,

just with a pen and writing a list and just colour in some boxes every day.

You don't have to use stencils or you don't have to draw calendars or anything.

It's really flexible.

And you can track all sorts of things that are important to you.

Like what books you've read in the year or things that you want

to do with your family that year.

Or people were making lists like 20 things that I want to do in 2020.

It's really flexible.

And there's lots of inspiration on Instagram.

I share all of my pages on there as well, too, to give people ideas and

seeing pictures of people's journal pages really kind of brings it to life.

Um, everything is pretty much in bullet point form.

Um, hence the bullet journal method, and that really makes quick and easy to digest

the information when you look at your pages, because a big part of it is looking

back on what you've put in and not losing all of this stuff that you're thinking and

working on and doing throughout the year.

Um, and then there's a monthly process as well, where you write down all of

your events and tasks for a month, um, which feeds into your daily pages.

Um, and the daily pages is just a process of sitting down every day and writing

down what you need to get done that day.

And then in the evening, looking back and migrating things that

didn't get done, noting down things you want to remember in the day.

Um, this one notebook just everything in your life and it, um,

and you can get creative as well.

So people like to do to win their notebooks depending on how much time

you have, and whether you find it relaxing to be creative in your notebook.

And that's entirely optional.

Um, It's just, I guess the key thing is that this one notebook

holds all of your yearly monthly, weekly, and daily lists and thoughts.

Um, it's your entire life in a notebook and it's amazing how much it influences

how you live your day-to-day life, because it really slows you down and

helps you be intentional about how you want to spend your time and what you

want to give your time and energy to instead of just running on autopilot.

Thank you for that.

Um, that's I find it really fascinating.

It sounds like you can track or I don't know if track is the right word, but you

can journal on absolutely anything by.

Yeah, and I like your idea of going for inspiration.

So I will link in the show notes to your Instagram Raksha so people

can go and have a look at your pages and see how you use it.

So we're recording this at the end of March.

So if you're listening and thinking, oh, that sounds really good.

Um, do you have to wait for a new year or can you jump in out of time?

You can start any time and you don't have to do yearly pages and you don't

even have to set up any pages in advance.

You can just grab a notebook, start with a blank page and just start that day.

If you want to, or.

Even though it's March, you can always set goals for the year.

I don't always set my goals in January.

Um, sometimes it's months later that when I really understand what

I want it to focus on for the year.

So, um, it really isn't important that it's not January.

Uh, you can start anytime of year and as soon as you start looking

online and seeing getting ideas on, on what you can do, you just

want to get started straight away.

And you're not worried about what time of year it is.

Um, but the Bullet Journal Method book is also really, really helpful and

that really it breaks down the method.

And it's the true I guess it's what we call true bullet journaling,

um, before it kind of developed through the bullet journal community.

So that's a really good place to start as well.

Just having a look at that book because it really simplifies it.

And, um, so that you don't get overwhelmed when you do see

all the inspiration online.

I think like with most things, um, for me anyway, I really liked the sound

of this and I think it's something I could really enjoy and really get into.

I think it's starting, that's harder.

As I say, I say, we've moved so many things, isn't it it's just

like taking those first steps.

Cause it does seem really overwhelming.

Um, so maybe this is a good time to start talking about some of your

products, because I think that when I look at your products, I think

a lot of them have been designed.

Tell me if I'm wrong Raksha, just to help with a bit of that

ovehwhelm I know you have stencils.

And so do you want to talk to us about some of the products that you've

created and we'll take it from there?

Yep.

Um, so I guess six around six months after sharing my first video on

YouTube, I realized that people were recreating the pages of my journal

and sharing them on Instagram.

And they were doing similar exercises in their journals.

Like for example, one of my lists that I make is.

Uh, Simple Things List every month.

And that's where I write down five very simple things that I

plan to enjoy that month, usually related to the month or the season.

Um, so for example, if we're entering into spring, one of my simple things

would be to go out on a morning, walk and observe the change of the season,

or read a book out in the garden, or look out for new flowers, blooming.

And I realised people were doing a lot of these lists in their own journals and, um,

recreating the designs and layouts from my bullet journal as well in their own.

Um, and that just led to me thinking that I could produce tools to help

them draw up these pages because you get a lot of people who get

interested in bullet journaling and they like the creative side of it,

which is, which is the optional side.

It's not important that people want to be a bit creative in

their journal because it's fun.

Um, but find it difficult.

So I thought stencils could really help with that because it takes the stress away

from having to be artistic, but you can still have nice designs in your journal.

Um, so I, um, so I started by designing a stencil at home.

Um, using some software on my computer and my husband had a 3d

printer that he just used for fun.

Um, and I use that to print out my first stencils or, um, and I found

that I was able to make really good quality stencils with a 3d printer.

And I had so many original ideas coming to me because I was journaling all the time

and I could quickly see what people would benefit from because I was so close to it.

And then obviously having a community and an audience really helps because

they feed into it as well and start asking for help with certain things.

So you can see how you can provide a tool for it.

Um, so I did my first dance or printed it on a 3d printer set up an Etsy

shop and, um, put my first product up and I wasn't expecting any sales

because this is completely unplanned.

And again, I was just kind of going with the flow testing to see

if it would be something useful.

And really it's, it's hard to know whether your product you've created is going to be

sold or whether people would be interested in it is quite hard to know, but.

I thought I'd give it a go.

Um, and people did buy the stencil.

So when surely, slowly but surely, um, I kept adding more and more

stencils for journaling to my shop.

And eventually I added candles to the shop as well and call them

mindfulness candles because you can make journaling quite a nice ritual.

And part of the process for me is to light a nice calming scented

candle before opening up a journal.

So I thought I'd add that as another a tool for the journaling process

and that's how my Etsy shop kind of grew into a journaling shop, I guess.

Well, that's amazing.

Thank you for sharing that.

And um, like you say, you have lots and lots of templates and stencils.

Sorry, now, so, so it's, sorry to call them templates.

Um, so you have lots of sensors now and I see that's grown, and so has

that grown because people have been asking you for things, um, how,

how have you sort of made this?

How have you decided, okay, I'm going to add this to my

range, or how has that grown?

And so I guess the first few were my own ideas.

Um, things that just looking through all of my journals led to ideas.

Um, one of them was a grid spacing ruler.

So in the journaling community, it's quite common to use a dot grid journal.

Um, and I thought I could create a ruler to help people lay out their, their

journaling spreads quickly and easily.

So you can put this ruler on and it shows you exactly how to divide your page

up into halves or thirds or quarters.

And that was just from looking through my old journals and seeing

how I was laying things out.

Um, and that led to the idea of a ruler.

Um, Then slowly after that, the community started coming to me and

asking for particular templates and saying, and telling me what they would

find useful, like boxes of a certain size or circles, or, um, you know,

the ideas started coming to me, which was really, really helpful to actually

hear what people, what people need.

Um, and I guess that's the value of starting with an audience first, because

that can really guide what you do.

Um, and you can really provide valuable tools to them because you're

getting feedback from them directly.

Yeah.

And I guess that's, that's really true.

It's really nice that they're able to tell.

They need.

And then I guess on the other side of that, what's also really nice.

Is that when you started out with your stencils was you had an

audience there to tell about them.

Um, and I mean, I don't know, but I would, I would perhaps guess that

some of your first customers, at least were people who were already

in your community are watching your videos or following you on Instagram.

Um, and of course, being on Etsy you're reaching a wider

audience than that as well.

But I think it's really good that when you first started with your

products, you have some people, you know, that to tell them about it.

And I guess that's a really good test of where will people actually buy this

because you have the community there.

Yeah.

Completely.

Yeah.

So it was really important in my case to have that community already, because

I think I may have struggled to just put the product out there without

people to, um, to tell about it.

And without a video, it was actually just a YouTube video that, that did it for me,

just putting a video up of me using it.

That's what led to pretty much, most of my sales, I think.

I think that's, what's really interesting.

Yeah.

It can be really hard if you, I mean, I'm not an expert on Etsy, but I think

for any marketplace, if you go and put the product on there, but you don't

really have anyone to tell about it and you're relying on people finding it or

pay traffic or whatever it might be.

I think it can be a lot harder to get initial sales.

And of course now I'm sure people going on Etsy looking for better

at journaling tools are finding you organically, but that's because you

built up a bit of a sales history.

Yeah.

And all of these algorithms, even the Etsy algorithm will favor

people who have traffic already.

So it's, um, it's quite important to have.

Have a way of bringing people in and then you start to benefit

from the Etsy search as well.

A bit more when, when Etsy can see that people are interested in your product.

So bringing a lot of that traffic in yourself is, is quite important.

I think,

I think so too, and I specialize more on Amazon han Etsy, but I say the same

to anyone starting on Amazon, that you initially, you do have to sort

of generate your own traffic because they're not just going, I don't think

any marketplace is really just going to show your listing to people because

in most cases, for lots of us, there's someone else who's doing something

similar enough and they've already got some sales history and you know,

the marketplace is it's in their best interest to show customers the products

they think are most likely to sell.

If they can see you're getting lots of traffic and you're, and you're

converting well, then, you know, that sort of shifts in your favor then.

More likely to, to show your listing, but it's yeah, the beginning it's really hard.

So I think having an audience is, is amazing.

Yeah.

I think it's really good to do it that way round because lots of people,

myself included, I definitely did this.

I start, you know, a long time ago I started creating products and then

I started looking for an audience to sell them to so much harder.

And I know we don't all have communities already.

I think if you are in a position to say.

Getting people interested before you start selling something.

That's definitely an advantage.

Definitely.

And even if you just start with, um, sharing a bit on Instagram or

finding somewhere that you enjoy sharing, it really, really helps.

Um, even like, as, as we can see from this conversation, you don't even

need a product idea to start with.

You could just be sharing online and then take it from there.

Yes.

And I think that's really interesting that you didn't sort of start out thinking,

oh, I'm going to start selling products.

Um, and the products really came from people telling you

they needed those products.

And again, that's just a really nice way because something I often say to

people is you need to make sure your products meet a need, and you need to

be sure that people are going to buy it before you start spending lots of

time or money yeah, creating things.

So I think it's great because you had both of those, you knew people,

you knew they met a need and you knew people wanted them and that's.

Yeah, great place to start from.

Yeah, definitely.

And so how did you, um, go about actually creating your stencils?

Was it, you mentioned 3d printing.

So was it a case of finding a printer that could produce what you need?

Well, I was quite lucky really because my husband had a 3d printer in the

house and he used it just to make fun things for the kids and for himself.

So he'd learn how to use the 3d printer and how to design things,

um, in a 3d, 3d printer software.

Um, so luckily that, um, pointed me in the right direction and, um, he sh

he showed me all of the things that he learnt how to use it on YouTube.

Basically just watching some playlists on YouTube, showing you

how to design things on a 3d printer.

Um, so he recommended those to me and I just learned how to design as well.

Um, and I was quite lucky cause I had my husband for support as well.

Um, because he already knew how to use it.

And just did it all at home, really.

And I still, um, design and print stencils at home from my head.

And I've just upscaled a little bit.

I have a few 3d printers on the go to help keep up with the demand,

especially at the end of the year when people are getting new journals

and getting ready for the new year.

Um, December Christmas time is just crazy for me.

The house is just full of 3d printers, printing, stencils everywhere.

Um, yeah, so I had to invest in, um, some more printers as

well to keep up with the demand.

That's really interesting.

Um, I haven't actually spoken to anyone who does their own 3d printing before.

I'd assumed obviously incorrectly that you would have to find you know,

somewhere that could do that for you.

So that's, that's really good that you're able to do that at home and like you

say, investing more printers, make sense.

And so are you printing your stencils to order?

Yeah.

Um, I was initially, but now I just made sure I always have, um, a big batch of

stencils ready so that I can just fulfill orders, um, as, and when they come in.

So I just always make sure I have enough stock, because it takes a

little while to print a stencil, or it takes about two hours for one stencil.

Um, and you just turn it on, leave it on.

And it prints for two hours and it says really cool.

You can 3d print pretty much anything.

You can make anything from plastic.

Um, which is, which is quite cool.

That's really cool.

And I had, I was about to ask you how long it takes.

Yeah, I guess it makes sense that if you got even.

I don't know, 10 orders in a day.

And you had one printer that printer would be going a long time wouldn't

it if you were printing out an order, that makes sense that you can just

set them and is we're 3d printing, is it a case of you can just set it up

and walk away and it just happened.

Yeah, you can set it up, walk away, leave it, or some prints

you can leave overnight.

So the rulers I do a batch of those, um, in one print I do

eight rulers and it takes about.

Um, 11 hours.

So I can just put that one when I go to bed and I've got 11 rulers in the morning.

Um, and, and you can, um, bulk order have these made, I guess, bulk order them.

But the really good thing about having the 3d printers is that I

was able to test small samples of my products to see what worked,

um, without investing huge amounts.

Um, because usually there's like a minimum order when you get

stencils made or get products made.

And I didn't have to worry about any of that.

I could make, make them to order, um, from the beginning and tests

a lot easier without having to invest too much invest in anything

really, which is really helpful.

That is, and I guess it also gave, it gives you opportunity

to tweak things if you need to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm yeah.

I'm glad to say I'm really, I'm really impressed.

I don't know much about 3d printing, but I always thought it,

I didn't really think of it being something that you could do at home.

So I'm super impressed and, um, yeah, that sounds like a really good way of doing it.

And these, and it sounds, it sounds like it is something

that is fairly accessible then.

So it is something that you can learn how to make stencils and yep.

You can learn how to make, make anything on a 3d printer.

It's all on YouTube, everything, all the, all the courses, classes,

things to teach you how to use it.

It's all there.

So yeah, anyone interested in 3d printing can get started.

Um, it's a bit of an investment, uh, initially to buy a 3d printer.

And then it's just the cost of the PLA the plastic.

Yeah.

And I guess you do have some sort of factor that in, but yeah, but it sounds

like they, there isn't the, there, even though you're also producing

the products yourself, the time element is dabbled in, it takes time.

But I guess most of that time is spent on the upfront process of designing.

Yeah,

The stencils and, you know, cause once it's printing, you

can be doing other things.

So it's not like you're sitting there for two hours producing one stencil.

So you sort of can set it and, and go away and, and get on with the rest of your day.

Yeah.

You can always get on with other things.

Cause the printer will just, um, Print away while you do other things.

And I think there's smarter printers out there now as well.

They're obviously a bit more expensive, but there's ones that can

probably handle that a bit better and have timers and things like that.

And schedules and stuff like that.

Um, which is probably something I should look into.

Oh, I'm so really fascinated because you're able to produce them.

That's what's got me that you're able to do it yourself, but without

having to actually spend the time, because I get lots of people that

I speak to that produce their own products, whether it's candles or

cosmetics or all different things.

Um, there's obviously that time element every time.

The need to create either a batch or what was specific order

time involved in, in doing that.

But it sounds really smart in that a lot of your time is spent upfront and

then it's just creating and then, and then it's just producing them, you know?

Without taking any at any additional time, that's blown

my mind a little bit actually.

I'm really impressed, but I, yeah, I'm thinking now that I need to

find out more about 3d printing.

It's like the possibilities are endless.

Yeah.

They really are.

Like now I think people are 3d printing houses is as well.

Like if you look it up on YouTube, there's actual houses, big houses in the.

Being built without builders and without, um, people actually

were putting bricks together.

There's 3d printers, huge ones laying out cement and building

houses within like a few days.

Um, and the only work that goes into it is the design that a

designer does on a computer.

And you can use that same design to print as many houses as you want.

So it's just really mindblowing the things you can do.

That is it's amazing.

Isn't it scary though, when you feel like, you know, it feels like in some

point in the future, there might be so many jobs that are lost because

I know it can be printed that it's quite, it's going to be it's scary

um, but, but then you think of all the new opportunities for people who can.

Design 3d print, I guess, while things are changing, there's also lots of new

opportunities to, it's quite exciting.

Yeah.

And, um, so you have your circumstances and you mentioned you have your

range of candles now as well.

So do you have any other ideas of products down the line or do you

think it will be a case of listening to your community and responding?

I'll be taking a lot from the community.

Um, I've always also thought it'd be good to do some courses as well.

Um, some online courses maybe for bullet journaling or, um, related to some of

the other areas that I share content on.

So I've always had it on my bucket list, I guess, to do some training courses.

So that could be something, um, that comes next.

Well, I'll be honest if you ever did a course on how to

get started, bullet journaling.

I would be there because I think it's the, um, like we said

earlier, it's the getting started.

That's quite daunting, but I'm sure that once you get going, I can

imagine it gets quite addictive.

Yeah, definitely.

And sooner or later, you just can't live without your bullet journal.

Um, even if you don't pick it up every day, because life does get in the way

sometimes, and you might neglect your journal for a few days, but, but you

miss it and that makes you go back to it and just write a small list or just,

um, start with something really small.

Um, so you don't have to do it every day, either.

It's really, really flexible.

I'm thinking of as well, that would be such a nice sort of thing to have

to look back on you in 20 years, time to look back at your journal from when

you, I don't know, 40 or 20 or however old you are when you start there.

So I think it would be amazing.

I remember having those books as a kid where you would like write down,

you know, how old you were and who your best friend was and what your

favorite food journal things you get.

Um, You know that looking back on things like that, it's just fascinating.

Isn't it to think back to who you used to be and?

Yeah.

I love doing that.

And my old journals have a lot of that as well.

Just some memory pages or some pictures.

Like we take lots of pictures on our phones and then you just lose them.

That you don't really look at them again.

We don't really have photo albums anymore.

So I pick out some of my favorite pictures from the month and stick them down in

my journal and just have like monthly memories on there, which is really nice.

Cause, um, you can just look back on it later on and, and any, you're

just not feeling too good or feeling a bit de-motivated, it really helps

to just flick through an old journal and you just feel so much better.

You kind of like re reconnect with yourself and it makes

you feel a lot better.

So it's quite valuable having those older journals to look through.

Yeah.

Because I can definitely see that, like, you know, journal, such a way

that it really supports you by, I don't know, writing down wins or things

that made you happy or, yeah, I can totally get on board with this and

there's just, yeah, I wish I could.

This is a podcast, so I can't really show you otherwise.

I'd be pulling out my journals and showing you all the pages, but I do

have videos I'm flipping through.

All of my journals.

And so on my channel, people can see, um, every page of my journals every

year at the end of the year, I, um, do a little flip through, so you can see

all of the pages in my journal, and that gives a better idea of, of what

goes into it throughout the year..

Yeah.

Well, thank you.

Cause I'm going to link to, um, for your YouTube and Instagram and everywhere

else, your website, your Etsy shop in the show notes for this episode as well.

So people can go and take a look and do I'm.

Thank you for sharing those so openly, because I think it's quite vulnerable

to share all of that because journals and diaries can be really personal.

Um, so yeah.

Well thank you for sharing that because I think that I'm sure it's helped

so many people, whether it's with inspiration or their own mental wellbeing.

Yeah, I do.

I do like to share it because, um, it kind of, it helps other people see that

we're all, um, you know, we're all in the same boat and we all have, um, moments

where we feel down or we feel good.

And, you know, usually on social media, you see all the highlights

and the positive things.

Whereas, um, it's not always the case in, in real life.

Like everyone has ups and downs.

So I don't want to hide anything in my journal.

There are ups and downs throughout, and I like to show that it's normal.

So everyone knows that it's normal and can take comfort comfort from that.

Yeah.

Um, just one final question before we finish, if that's okay.

Raksha um, I would love to know what is your number one piece of

advice for other product creators?

Um, well, I would say is that there's a lot to learn, um, in this

whole journey and you only really learn by doing and reflecting.

Um, and, uh, there's a quote that I love that describes this really well.

It's I hear, and I forget.

I see.

And I remember I do, and I understand, and this couldn't be more true because I

always thought about starting a business or wanting to work for myself and spent

years just putting myself off because I always thought I didn't have any

good ideas or I don't know what to do.

Um, and it was only after taking that first step of making a video that I

really started understanding how to offer something valuable to others.

And so it's when you actually try to do something and then reflect on what you've

done and refine it along the way that's when you truly understand your offering.

Um, so my advice would be to take a small step act on one of your thoughts,

whether it's just sharing something online or testing, making a small

sample of a product to try and sell.

Um, the more you try to do something and then reflect and refine it

along the way, the closer, you'll get to creating something special.

Thank you.

I think you're exactly right.

That it can be really easy to think and spend so much time inside your heads.

Okay.

And I guess it's another form of procrastination, isn't it?

Or thinking things, and making decisions and wanting everything to be right.

But yeah, you're right.

There's a lot to be said for just jumping in and giving

something a go in a small way.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that anyone just goes ahead and orders,

thousands of pounds worth of products, for example, but doing something like

something really small where, you know, there's not a lot of risk involved, if

any, I think it has a really good idea.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for that.

And thank you so much for everything that you've shared.

I've really enjoyed speaking with you.

And again, I will link to everything in the show notes, because I am certain that

everyone's going to be really fascinated by your journals and what they look like.

And then I want to go and take a look.

Yeah.

Well, thank you for having me.

I've really enjoyed this, this talk.

Thank you so well, Thank you so much for listening all the

way to the end of this episode.

If you've enjoyed it, please do leave me a review that really helps

other people to find this podcast.

Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes and

do tell your friends about it too.

If you think that they also might enjoy it, you can find me@vickyweinberg.com.

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So again, that's Vicki weinberg.com.

Take care, have a good week and see you next time..