SPEAKER_01 0:38

Welcome. I'm Marissa Shadrick, host of the Resilient Faith Online Show. I'm a digital strategist and certified copywriter, but more importantly, a woman of faith. In this podcast, you'll find a biblical perspective to the external and internal challenges we face as online content creators. Join me for some inspiration and practical tips as we let our faith shape our work to create positive change online. To connect with our private Facebook group of faith-based online entrepreneurs, go to MarissaShatrick.com forward slash faith. Hello, hello everyone. Boy, do I have a treat for you today? If you've ever said to yourself, Well, it's just too late for me. I am just, I should have started a business in my 30s or in my forties. I'm in my 50s now, or maybe you're like me and you're in your 60s. You're thinking, no, I just missed that boat altogether. Well, I have a treat for you. And boy, are you going to be excited to hear my guest today? I'm going to introduce you to Ann Lafaulette, and let me tell you a little bit about her first. She's one of those unknown superstars. So you don't want to miss any portion of this podcast episode or YouTube video from wherever you're watching. After a 25-year career climbing the corporate ladder, Anne unexpectedly lost her job and found herself at a loss. And I know some people have experienced that, right? You lose your job or your business, your corporate business gets sold by someone and somebody else buys it and things change. Well, exploring her creativity at age of 55 was an adventure for her, and she quickly found that years of built-up expression emerged. This was uniquely true when she discovered surface pattern design. Anne was hooked, and she still can't wait to jump out of bed each morning to learn more and hone in her skills. Along this wonderful journey, Anne started teaching and she created a thriving entrepreneurial business providing online training and her coaching program, the Pattern Design Academy. Welcome, Anne.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Hi, I'm so incredibly honored to be here.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

I am excited that you're here. I love your story. I just absolutely love your story, especially because a lot of people, I actually know someone that recently lost their job, just recently. And um, it aches, it hurts, and it just all kinds of emotions are going through your head. And of course, mindset things. You you start reevaluating who you are and what you're gonna do. And you went through all that, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yes, and I do think it happens more and more these days. Frankly, it happened a lot last year during the pandemic. People were either laid off or furloughed or weren't quite sure if the job was gonna be there when things kind of settled down. So it is actually, I think, more of a familiar story, uh, perhaps, than um, but let me tell you this. So my mom always told me that when one door closes, another door opens. Now, when I lost my job, I had been working at giant retailers, companies you'd know, you'd be for very familiar with. And I was very, I was a very dutiful student in school, and I was a very sort of type A, yes, sir, follow orders kind of person, right? And the reason I share that with you is because when I got laid off, I didn't really know who I was because I'd always followed somebody else's path. So when my boss called me into his office and sat me down and said, Hey, we just eliminated your job. Sorry, go talk to human resources. I literally was in shock because I was a top performer at the company. I was in the top 5% of performers at the company. Um, I was a VP. Um, I'd been there for 15 years, and then I'd been in other companies prior, but I've been at that particular company for 15 years, and so it just came completely out of the blue. Right. And um, but the more important message I think for people is to realize that um, at least in my situation, my whole identity was my job.

unknown 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

And so I am here to tell you that it does not have to be that way, and that I can share a little bit about my transformation so that hopefully that serves you, any of you who are listening or watching, if you're feeling a little bit the same way.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Yeah, so interesting. When that happened after the the sting kind of subsided a little bit, um, why didn't you look for another corporate job? Why pattern designs? What what what made you take that leap?

SPEAKER_00 5:29

So I did look for another corporate job, and then I was 56, and I kept looking for another corporate job, and then I was 57, and I kept looking for another corporate job, and then I was 58, and so I would actually get a gig and then it would not turn into a long-term thing. And I think partially that was because uh, you know, I was in my late 50s, and so it was harder for me to find kind of a cultural fit, I think. Um who knows? Who knows? But but listen, the powers that be, we're all, you know, I am a person of faith, I know you're a person of faith. Someone was telling me that this was not the path for me anymore. And I kept hitting my head against the wall, saying, I got I don't know who I am. I only know corporate. I only know corporate. And so I'm very, very blessed to have a wonderful family and a wonderful husband and a wonderful son. And my husband finally said to me, Honey, you have to start listening to you got to start paying attention that some, you know, you're getting a message. You're getting a message, and you're not paying attention to the message that you're meant for something else now. You're meant for something else, and we have to figure out what that is. And we didn't know what it was, but we did know that I had a box of art supplies gathering dust in the basement. And my husband had always joked with me over the years of traveling or even just being at home. Whenever I had a free minute, I would go to the art store and buy some colored pencils or some watercolors or a beautiful notebook, which I never used because I worked all the time. I would work 24-7, super, super committed to the company. And so he said, Well, honey, they're sitting in the basement gathering dust. Why don't we bring them up? And why don't you give yourself grace and take a little bit of time to explore why have you been gathering? Why have you been collecting these for so many years? Maybe now's the time to use them.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

What'd you think?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

And so I was just first of all delighted and for just, I mean, just felt so incredibly blessed and so grateful that that was his suggestion. And he bought me for Christmas. This was, I think, four years ago. For Christmas, he bought me an online art class because I didn't go to art school. I don't have an art background. My corporate jobs were all operations jobs or strategy jobs or inventory management jobs. So I didn't know if I had any, you know, if I had anything to offer. So during my exploration in this online course, it was a fabulous online course. I love this woman to this day. Her name is Carla Sondheim. And so your audience can look her up, Carlasonheim.com. She still offers online courses now and she frequently has guests. In any event, she has every year she offers one program that's a year-long program. And every two weeks you get a new assignment. And since I did not go to art school, I didn't know anything about art, um, other than I love supplies, art supplies. So it was the perfect thing for me to learn a little bit how to draw, learn a little bit how to paint. And one of the modules in the course was creating repeating patterns by hand. And I didn't even know what this whole concept was, but I loved it. It was like creating something that where this is actually a digitized version of surface design, but essentially you draw some little doodles and then you bring it into Adobe Illustrator and you turn it into vector artwork that repeats seamlessly from left to right and top to bottom and all the way around. This is a little notebook.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Okay. For those that can't see it, it's it's a pattern. Like if you would see fabric, you know, a pattern on a fabric, that's what she's talking about. She creates this doodle and then it gets repeated in Adobe, right? And then it creates this pattern like you would see on a fabric. And you can put it on.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Exactly, exactly. And so for people who are just listening, look around you right now and you will see at least three things that have a surface pattern design on them. Yeah. The rug under your feet, wrap wallpaper. If you have wall uh wallpaper in your house, the blouse you're wearing or the shirt you're wearing, and um, and also if you've recently wrapped a gift, wrapping paper is a surface design. So it's everywhere. It's the it's the best kept secret because no one's ever heard the term before, but it's a ginormous industry.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Wow, that's amazing. So at the time you were learning art, you're excited about it, you're finally, you know, doing what you love, some art. But as far as a business, did you think, can I turn this into a business?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Yes. So that was um, that was so I had all this corporate experience. And so initially I felt like I needed to leave all of my corporate and business experience behind, and that this was I was bitter and I was angry and was like, I'm not doing any of that anymore. I'm not gonna leverage any of that knowledge, I'm moving in a totally new direction with my creativity. But then I realized that I have so many skills from all those years in corporate. Sure. Yeah. And most of my jobs were operational or strategic. I looked at lots of financial statements over my years in corporate, and I realized that I could formulate a business and create kind of my own roadmap, my own business roadmap. And part of that was from figuring out all the different ways I could sell my artwork. And then that also evolved into my passion for teaching. I come from a family of teachers and found that I love to share my passion about this with other people, and especially people like me who are at a, you know, I'm 63 now. And so I've had, I've been my own boss, essentially, with a really fantastically thriving business since 2019. So just a couple of years when it really started to take off. And I love to pass that along to my community who are very much like me. Some of them are going through some other type of change. It's not always a layoff change, but it's often some other type of very big life change. And yet many of them were like me. They've been creative or they wanted to be creative. Many of them were actually creative, and teachers told them that they weren't good enough. And so they gave up on it. And now is the opportunity for us to use this time in our lives to lean into our creativity. And my tagline is it's never too late to create.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

I love it. And talk about change. I mean, we went through a lot of change last year and being able to do something creative, something that makes you feel good. I mean, how great is that, right? To be able to do something like that. So when you started, you had your corporate background, so that kind of gave you a little bit of business insight. You were learning about art, enjoying it, loving it, which is a great takeaway. You should love what you do, right? What's the one of the biggest challenges you had faced when you were first getting started? Like you had the knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Yeah. So the biggest challenge was that I needed to learn about online business. And because I had a corporate job in, you know, retail, brick and mortar. I was not on the online side, you know, I wasn't in the online side of the business. I was in the brick and mortar side of the business. So I needed to learn about online business. And um, and so my mom was has oh my mom passed away a couple of years ago, and um, she always, always, always was a huge advocate for education and investing in yourself because anything that you invest, anything you put in your brain, no one can take away from you. And so knowledge, right? Knowledge is both power, knowledge is empowering, knowledge allows you to have more options, knowledge allows you to then create your own path. And so I invested in um several online courses, um, and one that I highly, high, highly recommend that's about uh online courses specifically, is someone your audience may know quite well. That's her name is Amy Porterfield.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

She's awesome, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

And so I purchased her program, and I am a very good student, and so I follow formula type A.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

So you're gonna, I'm a type A too.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

So yeah, that's awesome. And one of the things that I promised myself was listen, if I'm gonna be making these investments in myself, I have to get them to pay off. I have to pay myself back by doing the work and implementing what they taught me. So I'm not just gonna, you know, I'm not just learning for learning state learning's sake. I'm gonna pay, you know, and I, and this is probably will resonate with many people in your audience as well. My husband and I were co-earners in our household until I lost my job. And so part of my identity was very much the fact that I earned as much money as him. We were co-equal, you know, owners of our not only our relationship, but our house and our everything, all our assets. And so all of a sudden, when I lost my job, we had half of what we had before. And I think the most important message there was that that earning my own keep was part of my is part of my personality. I have to earn my own keep. I want to be able to stand on my own feet. I want to be able to, no matter what happens, if some horrible thing happens, I'm gonna be okay. I'm gonna be okay because I can earn my own money, I can take care of myself. And um, so that was definitely a big motivating factor, which leads to okay, if I'm making an investment in a $3,000 or $2,000 course, I'm gonna do the work, I'm gonna implement the work, and I'm gonna pay myself back so that then I can go on and I can reinvest that money into the next thing I need to learn. So anyway.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Now, one of the things that people always um bring up is technology. So was technology part of a struggle, or did you just outsource it, or did you learn it? How did you tackle technology for those that say, no, I can't do this because of technology?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah, so listen, I this is part of what is like so amazing when you just when you make a decision that you're gonna learn hard, do hard things. So this is an ex one of Amy Porterfield's favorite expressions. We can do hard things. Nothing is outside of our capabilities if we slow down and do it one step at a time. So I was the person in my house who I have an iPhone. Generally, there's nothing difficult about using this phone. But if I had a problem with my phone, I would hand it to my husband and say, honey, I can't get this to work. So I literally am like the technophobe from from the what from the get-go. And but I decided, hey, I am not gonna be able to ask my husband to help me build an email list, or I'm not gonna be able to ask my husband to help me figure out how to use a um a CRM, right? A uh, or the whatever the other expression is for your an ESP, email service provider, right? I'm gonna need to learn how to do these things. And uh, and listen, I'm I'm not a spring chicken, so I know things are gonna take me longer, but I have a deep belief in the fact that if I try and I slow down and I repeat the process enough, I can do it. I can totally do it. So I wanted to learn how to do the how to build my email list, how to connect my email service provider to my lead magnet, how to make sure that if my lead magnet wasn't working, I could switch it out to something else. And you know, I was talking actually, I go live on Facebook every Wednesday at noon to talk to my creative community. And I was telling them today, don't worry about step 10. Right, do step one because that will prepare you for step two. And step 10, as soon as you're at step nine, you'll be ready for step 10, but don't worry about it until you get there.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

So, anyways, maybe that's that's great advice. First of all, your mother had great advice about learning, and I just I love learning. I love reading, I love learning new things. But you're right, you've got to deal with step one first, then step two, and you're right. By the time you get to 10, it's all gonna make sense. And you realize that there's this language of technology that once you learn like a method, you can translate it to another program. It's not as difficult. Once you go through it, you start realizing, oh, integration. Okay, I know what that is. And you start looking for those things that that you're familiar with. And a lot of them work the same way nowadays. There's so much plug and play. I mean, you just drag and drop to create pages on your website or to create a landing page. There's so many tools now that w we didn't have 10 years ago. So it's really, I mean, if somebody wants to learn, you can look up just about any kind of tutorial these days and find a step-by-step video. So I love that. I I don't like technology to be a hindrance to people because there's a way to work around it and we can learn, we can continue to learn. So I love that. Thank you for sharing that. So as far as um fulfillment goes, you said before that your job was your identity when you were in corporate. How does it feel now? I mean, uh it's different, isn't it? Now that you're enjoying art and doing something that you really love to do and you're creating, is it a different type of feeling? Because is your your identity, it seems like you have more fulfillment now.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Yeah, so I uh I jump out of bed in the morning and I just cannot wait to either teach the creative community that's in one of my programs, or to I have a huge Facebook, free Facebook group for people who find me online and to support them, or to to continue to create my own art and put that out into the world. I um I love being my own boss.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

I love being my own boss because first of all, nobody can take it away from me, right? No one can take it away from me. And having had something very, very important to me taken away from me, which was my my living, our insurance. It was like everything, you know, a huge amount of our sort of financial um security was taken away from me. And so I will never let that happen again. And being my own boss allows me to set my own hours. Having an online business means I can work from anywhere. So I grew up in Europe as a child. My my I am so blessed. My whole life story is a blessing. We all have bumps in the road, but it's an incredible blessing. We moved to Europe when I was eight, and my mom threw us into the French school system. None of the kids spoke any French. And I bring this up actually to go back to technology just for a second. When you're learning a foreign language and think of technology as a foreign language, initially you think your head's gonna explode. But eventually, your your brain is an amazing muscle. So if you let things sit in there, those vocabulary words, you have no idea what they mean. Eventually, you're gonna know what they mean. And it's the same holds true for technology, but you have to give yourself the time to let it get absorbed and not work too hard to push through it. So, anyways, that's a little bit of an aside, but I brought it up because I do think that tech can be a big stumbling block for people. And I think that there's a little bit of a mindset shift that needs to happen, where first of all, it's getting easier and easier. And then the other thing is that you're gonna be so incredibly, you can have such an incredible sense of accomplishment when you do figure it out. Um, and you just have to be patient with yourself.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Even if you're gonna outsource, it's good to know how to do it. And like I said, there's so many tutorials these days, and technology is so much easier. I mean, look how many people use a phone for crying out loud. You know, um, it used to be just the young people would buy the phone, but now everybody has a phone. Everybody navigates. You see, everybody in the store, they're all using apps and stuff. Everybody quickly learned how to use the phone. So it is something, it's it's something that you can learn. And it's needed in a business. So you just embrace it, and I I believe it is a mindset thing that you have to tell yourself, this is something that I can learn. And also create the steps for yourself internally, like what you're doing, like how to create a lead magnet. Okay, all the steps that you've taken, it's a good idea to just use Evernote or use some kind of app to be able to document the steps. Here are the steps that I do when I create a blog post, or here are the steps that I do when I create a podcast. And just use it like a checklist so that you know how to do it. And then if you do outsource. And you start growing a team, you can just give them that and say, This, these are the steps that I use to create a blog post. And I have to have all these elements in there. So it's good to have that because there's a lot of programs out there, and most of us use a lot of programs. So it's good to have that organized that way. So then when you do outsource, you can have something already, your process already in place.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

So that's and I loved being sort of a jack of all trades. I mean, I kind of wanted to learn it all, at least initially, so that I could make better decisions about when I was ready in my business to say, okay, I actually don't need to do that anymore. I really it's really better for me to stay focused in my zone of genius and delegate some of these tasks to others. But you're not gonna, you need to know enough about it to ensure that you're both teaching them and guiding them and uh to ensure you get the result that you want. So that was sort of my philosophy.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

That's awesome. So what advice would you give somebody that's maybe in the art space thinking about putting something online, but maybe have fears or reservations? What would you tell them?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

So I think that art is so incredibly important. And I do think that on that sometimes people think, well, you know, an online course on art, I'm only gonna be able to charge, you know, $47 for it. So my online course is $1,297, $1,297. And it's a 10-week course. And there's almost no price resistance in my Mart and for the people who find me and who I resonate with. And I bring that up because I think that we as artists need to stand in our power. We need to realize that art is really important and that our art actually is transformative. And whether you're teaching a skill like I am, the benefit of my program is way, way beyond the skill that someone learns. They learn these amazing skills that allow them to get their artwork out into the world and in many, many different ways. And that's incredibly empowering. But the much more important message is that, and I say this and people laugh, but we're not dead yet. Okay, I'm 63 years old. I have many, many productive years ahead of me, as do my students. And if they love art and they've we're always told they couldn't do it, it is not too late. And now is the time to use to feel the blessing of time that we have and to take advantage of this blessing of time that we have and to use it in the way that is going to fulfill us the most and also those we serve.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Absolutely. And live with no regrets. At least we can say that we did it or we tried it, you know, and live with no regrets because I think that's a motivator for me to try new things. I don't want to regret that I didn't try it, at least and see.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yeah, and also listen, we're all still stressed out. We're still recovering from this whole like nightmare 2020. And art is a art heals. Art is incredibly um, it's a great de stressor, it's a great way to calm yourself, it's a great way to engage with your family, with your, you know, your kids, your grandkids, your your parents, and um, and actually spend kind of more quiet time together uh without the television on. And uh, and so, anyways, I'm obviously I want to get off my soapbox, but I I truly believe that that I don't want anyone to feel like you can't do this in the art space. You absolutely can have a very successful online business in the art space, and it's needed more and more, more and more.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

I believe it is as well. So, Anne in corporate and Anne doing what she loves with the pattern designs, big comparison there. What is like the best thing about having your business working at home? I mean, what is like the best thing? I mean, would you ever go back to corporate?

SPEAKER_00 26:31

I would never go back to corporate, never go back to corporate because I'm not gonna have anybody tell me what to do ever again. Love it. So ever again. And and the great thing about having this online business and being my own boss is I'm going to Paris. Oh nice. I'm going to Paris. And last in 2019, so before COVID. So my first, my first sort of year in business when things really started to hum for me in 2019. Um, I took my photographer with me to Paris. I paid for her flight, I paid for her hotel. We took pictures of me in Paris. They're on my website if you want to see them. Of course, I don't look that way anymore because I let my hair go white during COVID, and I'm not gonna color it anymore. I let it go white during COVID and um and I love it. And my community totally loves it. But I can do those things. I can basically take my laptop, I can launch my course from Paris, I can do my Facebook Lives from Paris. All I need is my laptop and my and a Wi-Fi connection. Wi-Fi connection. Isn't that wonderful? And my art supplies.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Isn't that wonderful? I love that too, how mobile we can, because we're a mobile culture, and I love that we can just have the laptop and it, like you said, if we have Wi-Fi, we could take care of any business. Um, I went out of town last week, picked up a client, you know, while I was out of town. All I had to do was send a few emails, and it's it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

And you can do it right. You've got an incredible computer in your phone. I know. And then you have the laptop for my purposes because I obviously do a lot of artwork on the computer and um and I also teach through it.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Awesome. So this has gone so fast, but I just love your story. I think it's so encouraging. I think a lot of people are gonna find it as an encouragement because I am 62 and you said you're 63. So, hey, thumbs up for those people in their 60s because we're kicking butt, man. So awesome. That is awesome. So, how can someone reach you if they're interested in surface pattern designs? What's the best?

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah, so they should just go to my website, anlafaitart.com. It's very hard to spell, but I'm sure, Marissa, that you will put it in the show notes. I will put it in the show notes. Yep, you can just go to anlafault art.com and when you land on my website, you just scroll down a little bit and you'll see a banner that tells you how you can join me on Wednesdays for my weekly Wednesday chat on art, creativity, and surface design. It's every single Wednesday on my Facebook business page at noon Pacific. And then you can also scroll a little bit further and you can see some of my um my opt-ins, right? You can learn more about surface design by downloading an ebook that I have and explore other wonderful opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

So even if they're new and they they just want to learn and they're saying, Man, I really am interested in that. That sounds like something fun that I would want to learn. I mean, somebody new can come in and learn about it.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Absolutely, absolutely. So, all of my students, none of my students, well, that's not totally true. 10% of my students have used Adobe Illustrator before. Okay. 90% of my students have only drawn by hand and they've never opened a computer program like Adobe Illustrator before, ever, ever, ever. And I take you, I'm 63. I know how to teach slowly because I needed to teach, I needed to learn slowly. So I I take everybody by the hand and um and I will help you be successful. It's really fun and it's so joyful. It's so, so full of joy.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

That's awesome. Well, Anne, it's been such a wonderful time here interviewing you and talking to you. I knew it was going to be wonderful, just inspiring. Thank you so much. And I know you have inspired somebody out there listening or watching the video replay because some people just have these mental blocks, this limiting belief that it's too late. And I love your message that it's not too late. And I agree 100%. So thank you so much for joining us. And I will put all the information in the show notes for you guys, both on YouTube and on the podcast. So if you're interested in surface pattern designs, you know who to talk to. So until next time, thank you, Anne, so much. Any last words for everyone?

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Thank you so much. Listen, I'm so honored to be here, and it's never too late to create. So have a wonderful rest of your day, and thank you again so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Amen. There you go. Podcast helpful, then subscribe from wherever you're listening today so you never miss an episode. Every subscription, review, or rating means so much to me. So keep them coming and share this with a friend. For more free content, go to marissah.com and remember keep cultivating resilient faith online to create positive change in the world.